


Rip Current

by yaruna



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Surfers, Angst, Drama, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, POV Duo Maxwell, POV First Person, Surfing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-09
Updated: 2016-04-10
Packaged: 2018-05-12 19:01:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 106,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5677039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yaruna/pseuds/yaruna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Feelings are running high on the shorelines. Duo has arrived on the shores of Sanc Island and is making new friends, and enemies, among the locals as they surf their way towards the big competition.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Drop In

**Author's Note:**

> Warning:  
> Probably some OOCness. Kind of bastard Heero in the first chapters. Some swearing. Won’t pass the Bechdel test. Somewhat cliché, I think. Hmmz… what more… oh yeah, I’m a bit of a sadist, people will get hurt… sorry about that ☺  
> Disclaimer: Gundam Wing isn’t mine! I’m not pretending they are, I simply love messing around with the lovable characters. Any similarities to existing works is purely coincidental
> 
> I live for feedback ☺  
> Sit back, and let the waves take you for a ride.

There is no other element that is quite as mighty as water. It has the power that no other element has. It has the power to give life.

I am as one with the water when I ride on it – in it – when it allows me to ride on top of its surface. It’s a tentative allowance. If you make a mistake, or if the ocean is feeling edgy, it drops you into its folds and you are at the hands of a higher power.

It is awe-inspiring. It is terrifying. It makes me come alive like nothing else can.

It will break you though. I know this better than most. I’ve seen the ferocious power of the waves. I’ve seen my best friend die at their hands. And still, I cannot stay away.

I let my hand touch the wave, feeling the water under my fingers. My braid slapped against my back. There is no feeling that will ever come close to the thrill of surfing a pipe. The beauty of seeing the exit in a tube of sparkling colors as the water bends the light into rainbows. At that point, there wasn’t much light, but the dawn was shining an orange light in the sky.

The pipe was closing and I pumped to gain speed enough to get out and surf over the lip, letting the wave go. It was my last for the day, I decided. Always decide on the last of the day after you’ve already ridden it. It was something I’d learnt from my days with Solo.

The last few weeks, a black Labrador had been waiting for me on the beach. That night was no different. It sat patiently near the water’s edge, waiting for me to come closer, so we could play.

‘Hey, boy. You here today as well?’ I called when the water only reached me to my shins. The dog immediately skipped into the water with a tennis ball in its mouth, making me laugh.

‘All right,’ I said and scratched the dog behind its ear as it dropped the ball into my hand, wagging its tail hard enough to make the dog sway.

I threw the ball far along the waterline and the dog flew after it, staying in the water even though it would have probably been quicker for it to go on the wet sand. While he fetched it, I went to my backpack and dug out one of the dog treats I’d bought the previous day. Not having an abundance of money, I was required to conserve what little I did have, but this time I’d splurged.

The dog came back and pushed its nose in under my hand, dropping the soggy ball in my backpack.

‘Oh, shit!’ I dug into the bag, fishing the ball out. ‘I told you, boy, my life is in there, don’t go ruining it.’

I laughed as the dog licked my fingers and scratched it behind the ears again.

‘I’m not mad, boy. Here, look what I got you,’ I said and held out the treat which was readily accepted by the dog.

‘I wonder what your name is…’ I said to him, letting my fingers bury themselves in his wet fur. He just woofed in response, making me smile as I idly threw the tennis ball for him again. He’d been ready for it and dashed off, kicking up sand in my face and into my half-open mouth, making me spit it out.

‘Thanks,’ I called, and I saw his ears move to listen, but he kept going forwards and finally reached the ball.

I dug out another treat for him and held my hand out as a sharp whistle travelled in the air. The dog lifted its head to attention and looked at my held-out treat for half a moment before he rushed off towards the noise.

‘Guess your owner called, huh?’ I said to the emptiness that the dog left behind. The treat went back into the bag and I proceeded to zip it up and put it on my back. I grabbed my board and left the beach.

I’d come to Sanc Island without a plan, without a return ticket and without money. I hadn’t exactly made any huge attempts to get involved with the local surfers, now preferring to make friends elsewhere, away from the dangers of the water.

Without money, there isn’t much one can achieve when it comes to choosing where to sleep, but I’d found a small, run-down shed that no one appeared to be using. The door and windows had been boarded up, but I was lean enough to be able to fit through a small window on the side, that they had probably left on the basis that no one would try to get in there. How wrong they had been.

I had moved buckets upon buckets of sand into the small shed so that I could have a decently soft place to sleep on, and had placed blankets on that so the coldness of the sand wouldn't seep through. Without direct sunlight to heat it up, sand is rather cool. It doesn’t quite make for the best of beds.

It wasn't the best place is ever slept at, but it wasn't the worst either, and I was happy that I had at least found a place with a somewhat intact roof. 

I puffed my pillow to make if soft and laid down on my makeshift cot, pulling my other blanket on top of me, and quickly fell asleep. 

During the days, I had taken to searching for jobs. Usually I woke up around midday and walked the miles into the city. The problem with this is that the locals are highly adverse to any outsider coming in, and there weren't any job offers on display. If there were, they had mysteriously been filled when I came to the counter and I was starting to lose hope that I would find any work. 

I stopped outside of the local grocery store and felt my stomach complain about the fact that I hadn't yet eaten anything that day. In my head, I calculated how much I had left and sighed when I came up with the expected answer. Not nearly enough. Maybe I could at least get a fruit now, and I would go to the pier for some fishing later.

I opened the door. The bell rang to announce my arrival but the place seemed completely deserted. There were some cheap oranges, but I was loath to pay for them when I could pick them when I went back to the beach. In the end, I found some bread that had passed its expiration date, thinking I'd be able to haggle over the price a bit. Stepping up to the counter, it was still empty. 

'Hello?' I called

'Out back!'

I frowned, placing my old bread on the counter and went behind it to open the door. It wouldn't open far, so I pressed against it as much as I could and squeezed my way through. 

Cartons and their contents and a huge shelf were lying scrambled all over the floor. At the end of the shelf, an old man was sitting up unsteadily and I hurried over to him to assist. There was blood running down his face and I looked around for a towel, but as I didn't see one I discarded my t-shirt and pressed it against his head.

'I'm stuck,' the man said and I followed his gaze to his foot that was caught underneath the shelf. 

'Can you withdraw it if I lift it, sir?'

'I'm not invalid'

'I'll take that as a yes,' I said, chuckling softly as I got back to my feet and lifted the shelf. It wasn't all that heavy, but he would have had a hard time getting the leverage to do it on his own. 

He pushed himself backwards, allowing me to drop the shelf back down. 

'Do you have a phone? I'll call an ambulance,' I said and he scoffed at me. 

'I won't go in an ambulance, kid.'

'What?'

'My car keys are on the desk, help me over there and I'll drive.'

'You'd keel over before you get halfway to the hospital,' I said and he paused, thinking about it. 

'Go up front and lock, then drive me to the hospital,' he said. It seemed like he was used to getting his way

'An ambulance –‘

'Now, kid!' he said and I shrugged. It wasn't like I had anything better to do anyways, so I squeezed my way out of the door again, turned the sign to Closed and locked the entrance to the shop.

When I got back, the old man had managed to limp his way to the desk where he was now leaning heavily, one hand on the desk, the other clutching my t-shirt to his forehead. I stepped up and grabbed the keys that were lying in front of him. 

'Lean on me old man,' I said, and almost choked on my words, but they were already out. Then he laughed and I relaxed. 

'Who are you calling old, insolent youth,' he said in a surprisingly teasing tone. I helped him put his arm over my shoulder and we went outside ungracefully. 

'Lock up, kid. Second key on the right,' he said and I obediently turned and locked the backdoor before we continued our slow way to the car. 

'Which way?' I asked as I pushed the car into gear and left the parking lot. 

'Ah, you're the tourist that's been going around begging for jobs.' I grinned as he said it, evidently everyone knew everybody around here. 'Just head straight until I tell you to turn.’

We went quiet then, and I shot the occasional look at the old man, wanting to make sure he didn’t fall asleep on me. Even more, that he didn’t die on me.

‘You looking for jobs without your shirt on, kid?’ the man asked then and I couldn’t help but laugh loudly in disbelief.

‘You’ve got my shirt, old man,’ I said; adding the “old man” deliberately this time, as a countermeasure for him calling me kid. I thought it was justified.

‘Oh, yeah,’ he said as though he just remembered and laughed slightly. ‘There ain’t no jobs for outsiders here, though.’

‘I’ve noticed,’ I said in frustration. ‘I’ve been going to everyone I could find to try and get a job.’

‘Left here,’ the man said and I had to break quite hard in order to make the sharp turn.

‘Bit more warning, next time,’ I grumbled as I straightened the car back up, shifted gears, and pressed on the throttle again.

‘Where’s the fun in that?’ he asked in amusement, and I was certain that this man was crazy.

‘Just press that shirt against your head and make sure your brains don’t fall out,’ I said silently, not really intending for the man to hear me, but obviously he did because he laughed boisterously.

‘I like you, kid. You’re hired!’

‘What?’

‘You keep asking that question, you need to listen more closely. Take a right up here, the hospital is just ahead.’

‘I heard you, I just didn’t believe you.’

‘You can count? Addition and subtraction?’

‘Yeah,’ I said, dragging the word out longer than necessary.

‘Then you’re hired. You can start as soon as you’ve dropped me off at the doctor’s.’

I blinked in surprise. This was not exactly how I had imagined getting a job, but I’d take it.

‘Sure. You trust me?’

‘Should I have any reason not to trust you?’ he asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at me with his head tilted.

‘Usually you don’t just –‘ I interrupted myself as he raised his eyebrow even higher, making me afraid it would blend in with the hair. Well, who was I to look a gift horse in the mouth? ’No, of course not! I’ll take care of your store.

I parked the car and got out to help support the man into the hospital. As soon as we came in through the door a nurse came up with a wheelchair, into which I deposited my new boss, to his apparent dislike.

‘I close at eight. The money from the day goes in the safe in the back, code fifty-four eighty-nine. Count it and put it in an envelope before you lock up.’

‘Got it.’ I couldn’t believe he trusted me, a complete stranger, with the code to his safe. There was something seriously off with this man. Lucky me.

‘I open at seven in the morning. Be there,’ he said, and was rolled away.

‘What about the car?’

‘Take it, I’ll get back on my own,’ he called and I was left standing by the doors to the hospital, looking after the old man that I only then realized that I didn’t even know the name of.

I drove back to the store, put the bread that was still on the counter back in its original spot. I didn’t have the money to pay for it, and not having the owner here to haggle with, I really couldn’t just grab it. In my older days, I might have, but since I had met Solo, he’d made me stop those things and focus on the surfing.

There were a few customers during the rest of the day, with a peak when works let out, but apart from that it was pretty dull. I’d found a book in the back room and was sitting by the register reading when a bunch of guys came in, talking loudly.

I eyed them cautiously. Back home such a gang would have been a teller of trouble about to come, but here it seemed as though everyone knew each other, and I hadn’t seen any fights more serious than the regular disagreement.

‘Did you see the news, Wufei?’ a tall, muscly guy with long blond hair asked and a black-haired dude turned around to face him, giving me a chance to study his features in the mirror in the ceiling. He looked Korean, or maybe Chinese. Yeah, probably Chinese, his hair black as a raven, his build leaner than the blond, and probably slightly shorter as well, but it was hard to tell in the mirror.

‘About the Gundams? Yeah, I noticed.’

The Gundams was the most prestigious surfing competition, held the shores of Sanc Island. This season, it was going to be held during the end of January, when the waves are known to be their roughest. Solo and I had been looking forward to it ever since we’d qualified, but then he’d gone, and I’d come here alone. There were still months to the contest, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to compete anymore.

The only news I knew they had released recently was who would be allowed to enter the bonus contest, Rift Wars. You had to compete in Gundams to be allowed to enter Rift Wars, and Gundams was already a quite exclusive contest, with only the top Pros, and two locals from Sanc allowed to enter. The locals qualified to compete against each other in a first qualifying contest where the two best would go on to compete in the Gundams.

‘Have you qualified yet?’ the blond asked and the Chinese scoffed.

‘I’ve got a chance if I get a good position during the next three qualifiers. If I win one, I’m all set, so I’m hoping to get a spot. You?’

‘No, I’m out already. Treize still has a shot though,’ the blond said and nodded towards one of the guys that was looking through the meat section. He was, if possible, even taller than the blond, with a mop of brown hair on his head, features set in stone.

‘Yeah, if I win the next three qualifiers, I’m all set,’ he said and I grinned. I had never seen these guys surf, but they were obviously quite good if they were qualifying for the Gundams. Even attempting it took some guts and skills. Or foolery. I wasn’t sure where I fit. A fool with guts, maybe?

‘Trowa, you’re in already, aren’t you?’ the Chinese asked the fourth and final guy of their group. He had brown hair, bangs covering the left side of his face, but his sharp jaw structure stood out and I was staring for a moment before I caught myself. I turned my eyes back to the mirrors. They were all rather attractive.

‘Yeah,’ the guy called Trowa answered simply as he grabbed a twelve-pack, hesitated a moment, and grabbed another one.

‘What about Quatre?’ the tall guy they’d called Treize earlier asked.

‘He’s not competing,’ Trowa answered curtly and walked towards the counter. He frowned as he saw me sitting there, looked around and over my shoulder towards the back room before he shrugged and put the packs of beer on the counter.

‘What about Heero?’ the blond asked and I saw the Chinese shrug as I rang up the beer.

‘You know he doesn’t compete, ever since she died,’ the Chinese said with a dejected tone. ‘We haven’t pushed him.’

‘Maybe it’s for the best, so the rest of you can have a chance,’ Treize said in a loud, amused tone.

‘You’re already giving up?’ the blond asked in plain amusement and I smiled. He was probably just being realistic; the chances of winning three contests in a row are quite slim, no matter how good you are.

‘So, you gonna let me pay, or…?’ the guy in front of me said and I flinched as I was brought back to where I was, and what I was supposed to be doing.

‘Shit! Sorry, buddy,’ I said and rang up the second case, blocking out the conversations going on around me. ‘It’s 31.98, please.’

He held out two twenties, looking at me with narrowed eyes, making me slightly uncomfortable. Uncomfortable typically made me defensive, so I tried to push the feeling away. I took the twenties hit it into the register, from where I picked up his change, and gave to him.

‘Guys, let’s get going,’ he said, pushing his bottles further along the counter, making room for the next.

The other three came up from behind the shelves and all lifted their eyebrows as they saw me.

‘Where’s the Boss?’ Treize asked, and placed his assortment of meat on the counter, and I started to ring them up.

It had taken me two customers before I realized that “the Boss” was actually the old man’s nickname, and I still didn’t know the name of the man I’d taken to the hospital.

‘He had an accident,’ I said for the umpteenth time that day. Like I said, everyone knew each other, and I guessed everyone was kind to the man having the only bigger grocery shop in town. He seemed to be pretty well liked. ‘He’ll probably be back tomorrow.’

‘We don’t see outsiders much in these parts,’ the blond said just as the door opened and the bell rang loudly to announce a new arrival, making me look in that direction.

A brown-haired guy walked in, and he made all the hairs on my body stand at attention. He looked like trouble, and I’ve seen my fair share of it. Actually, I’ve been my fair share of it. His hair was shaved on the sides and he had enough mousse in what was left to make it stand up on his head. He was walking with certain steps towards the counter, not even sparing me a raised eyebrow as he leaned over and grabbed a pack of cigarettes.

‘There’s a line,’ I supplied him helpfully as he held out his money, and he looked at me in disbelief.

‘I don’t wait in lines.’

‘Then go wait somewhere else,’ I said as nonchalantly as I could. I didn’t flinch when the guy smacked his hand down on the counter.

‘You don’t want to make me your enemy,’ he said and reached his hand out to pat at my chin.

I grew up on the streets. I’ve learnt how to defend myself, and I don’t take kindly to people touching me without my say so. So I deftly hit his hand away from me, making him drop the cigarettes on the floor. He looked at me in surprise, working his way towards anger. I saw the hit coming before he started moving his hand and had ducked by the time his fist struck where my head would have been. He lost his balance and had to catch himself against the counter, where he managed to topple one of Trowa’s packs over. I managed to move quickly enough to catch it before it hit the floor, but it also got me in the path of a furious lump of crazy-person. He spat at me and I felt it leave a track as it slowly slid down the side of my face.

Then he was pulled backwards off the counter, and I had to take a deep breath to keep myself from spitting right back at him. No more fights; I’d made that promise once to Solo. But we had both broken it afterwards. For some reason we always seemed to pull in the wrong crowd. Or we had been the wrong crowd.

The aggressive guy was being held back from coming at me again by Trowa and the blond

‘Mueller!’ someone called from outside. ‘You coming, or what?’

‘Yeah!’ the guy called out and glared at me, but stopped fighting against Trowa and the blond. They tentatively let go, but kept their hands close to his arms, just in case.

Mueller fished out a twenty from his pockets and put it on the counter before he turned to pick his cigarettes off the floor.

‘Keep the change. It looks like you need it for a new shirt,’ he said sharply and I glared at him even as I felt the blush travel up my cheeks as he pointed out that I was still topless.

When he left I took a deep breath and deposited Trowa’s beer back onto the counter.

‘Thanks,’ I muttered to the guys that had intervened. I was embarrassed at the display, but all of them burst into laughter, making me look up at them in surprise, and a bit of anger. What were they laughing at me for?

‘Sorry, it’s just, I’ve never seen Mueller so completely off his game before,’ the blond said between laughs and I had to smile. I turned to grab a piece of paper and wipe my face from that disgusting spit before I continued ringing up their goods.

‘We don’t get a lot of outsiders in these parts, they go a bit further up the road,’ Treize said, kind of repeating what the blond had already said before this Mueller guy had shown up. ‘But, for an outsider, I’d say you handled yourself spectacularly.’ His voice had a bit of that “holier-than-thou”-quality, so I was a bit unsure whether or not he was giving me a compliment, but pretty soon settled that he was.

‘Thanks, buddy. Is he always like that?’

‘When people try to make him stand in line, yes,’ Trowa said in a straight tone and I smirked.

‘Hey, I gave him an option,’ I answered and put the last of the meat into a bag. ’72.35 please.’

Treize handed me the money and then the Chinese put his basket on the counter, filled with chips and dips. They were definitely going to have a barbecue and I felt my own stomach protest at its emptiness. Two more hours before I could get out of here and get some fishing done, so I could finally get some dinner.

I rang up the last of it and waved them off. They had been a lot cooler than I had given them credit for when they first stepped through that door. I told myself that the fact that they were surfers had nothing to do with it. They still would have been cool. But then again, what had captured my attention had been their talk about the Gundams, and I sighed as I sat down in the chair, picking up the book again.

I didn’t need surfer friends. Especially not ones crazy enough to qualify for and enter the Gundams. I’d had enough of that, thank you very much. But still, it was nice, listening to them talk, much like Solo and I had used to do. They had been talking about the surf, and the weather, and other, more general topics that friends always manage to find. But it had been the surfing that had brought out the passion, and I envied them.

I missed it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not a surfer, unfortunately. I’ve tried my best to gather knowledge about the surfing community, but there will be mistakes. Most(all) are going to be blatantly obvious to anyone familiar with surfing, I ask that you tell me about these places if you wish to see it changed and think it’s salvageable. Feel free to tell me otherwise as well, I’ll do my best to adjust. (Please provide a source for your claims so I can validate them before changing anything) ☺  
> Any and all mistakes are mine and mine alone.
> 
> Gundam Wing is probably the fandom I’ll always come back to. It was my first fandom I got sucked into, and I still love the characters and their diversity. So despite the fact that the fandom has become much smaller than it once was, I decided to put this little piece up there. I hope it can bring those of you that are still around some enjoyment. It will be a long-runner ☺


	2. Bottom Turn

I padded my way out onto the beach in the darkness, wedged my board in the sand, and donned my headlamp. The swells were about as high as my waist. I was eager to get out there, even though I’d only gotten a couple hours of sleep. It had been well over midnight before I’d caught some shuteye, having gotten back around ten after a long day, and then catching a fish to cook and eat. Now, I was up at four to catch at least a few waves before I needed to leave for the town again.

I turned the headlamp on, grabbed my board and walked into the dark sea. It looks dangerous in the dark, just as it’s supposed to. It’s fooling everyone during the day, with its blue looks and calming sounds. No, the darkness fits it better. Fits me better, now.

I paddled for my first wave, felt the surge as I caught it, and popped up onto the board.

There are no issues when you surf. There’s just you and the water. If you spare your focus on something else for a split second, you lose. You lose the wave, you lose the flow, and you may well lose your life. The focus you have to maintain makes it a world in and of itself, a place to let everything go, and just live for the moment.

The swells tapered off a little after a while and I started to make my way back towards the shore, where the black Labrador was waiting again.

‘Hey, boy!’ I called, and he wagged his tail hard before he leaped into the water to come meet me.

I laughed as he swam up next to me; it was the first time for him to go so far out that he had to swim. He put his head on my board, glancing up at me. Curious to see what he would do, I made no motion, and the dog put its front paw on the board, paddling furiously with its hind legs to keep itself afloat. I took mercy on him and helped him up on the board where he immediately laid down.

‘You wanna surf, boy?’ I asked and he barked sharply, once. ‘Okay then.’

I turned the board around and paddled out a bit again, waiting for a calm wave, not knowing if the dog had ever done this before.

It came within minutes, and the Lab rolled its tongue out of its mouth, obviously enjoying himself as we rode the wave. When we’d almost lost it and I was about to sit back down, that sharp whistle that I’d heard the previous day made its way to us and the dog immediately jumped off the board.

Shit!

He pushed the board back with enough force to unbalance me, and I took an ungraceful plunge into the water. As soon as I emerged I spat some water out of my mouth and looked towards the noise of the dog jumping out of the water.

‘Ungrateful cretin!’ I called after him in jest and made my way back up onto my board and paddled my way in to the beach where I took my headlamp off again and stuffed it into my backpack. The sunrise was starting anyways.

I zipped the bag closed again, then heard the dog barking as it came running back towards me again. He stopped a bit away, where he sat down and looked at me with big eyes.

‘You want a treat, do you?’ I asked, laughing to myself as I unzipped the bag and fished out a treat before I went to him. ‘I’m not sure you deserve one, the way you left me in the water earlier.’

The dog barked, tail wagging frantically, and he sat down with his eyes intently fixed on the treat. I grinned.

‘All right, fine.’ I held out both my hands closed in fists with the treat in one of them. ‘Pick one.’

He immediately pushed his nose against the correct hand, and gave a small bark.

‘Hey!’ someone called just as I opened my hand and the dog snatched the treat. ‘Zee! Come here!’

I turned around to see a man walking towards me. The dog joined him at his left, looking up at the man as he trotted along. The man looked to be in nothing more than his underwear and what little I could see of his body in the soft light of the dawn appeared to be in good shape.

‘What the hell are you giving to my dog?’

‘Chill, buddy. It was just some dog treats,’ I said, going into defense at his hostile tone.

‘You don’t give someone else’s dog food,’ he said, walking closer, and I could see now, in the dawning light of the sunrise, that he appeared to be Japanese, with a brown mop of hair on his head, but the most amazing blue eyes. Eyes that reminded me of the ocean. Beautiful. Misleading. Dangerous.

‘I’m sorry, I won’t give him any more,’ I said and the guy glared at me and I wondered if blood could freeze, because it felt as though mine did.

‘Damn right you won’t,’ he said and grabbed my backpack, turning it upside down.

‘Hey! What the hell?’ I called, rushing forwards to stop him, but was met with a Lab before I made it halfway there, making me stop in my tracks. He wasn’t threatening, but he seemed uncertain, and I had no doubt in my mind that if I attacked his owner, he would attack me.

‘Just taking these,’ the guy said, picking up the bag of treats before leaving. I saw him chuck the treats into a trashcan before he whistled sharply for his dog who left me, kicking up sand in his wake.

‘Asshole,’ I breathed, and began picking up my things, carefully blowing the sand off of the photos and putting them back into their proper places.

I started trekking my way back into down for a long shift at the store. Hopefully the Boss would be back and I could haggle about that piece of bread that was now a day past its expiration day.

I put the key in the door and jiggled it a bit, frowning when it wouldn’t turn. I pushed the handle down, just to check, and had a small heart attack when the door swung open. Had I forgotten to lock it the previous night? No, I knew I’d locked it; I’d checked twice, and then turned around to check it once more, not looking to screw up the first job I’d gotten.

‘Hello?’ I called and went inside, closing the door behind me.

‘Oh, you’re here.’

I turned my head towards the voice, seeing the old man standing by a TV, looking over the security cameras from the previous day. With Mueller lying over the counter.

Well… crap.

‘What you waiting for, kid? Open the store,’ the man said and I felt my mouth fall halfway open. I wouldn’t ask “what”, apparently the old man didn’t appreciate that, so I just shrugged.

‘Sure. I’m glad you’re still alive, old man.’

‘Howard,’ he said, sounding aloof as he focused on the video. Finally, a name.

‘I’m Duo,’ I answered, and left him to his own as I went to unlock the front of the shop.

A short, older woman was already waiting outside, and I recognized her from the previous day. She pouted slightly as she saw me.

‘You have a shirt today,’ she said as she walked passed me and I felt heat rush to my ears.

‘Yeah, sorry,’ I said when I’d collected myself and chuckled slightly. ‘Yesterday was kind of a one day deal.’

‘Too bad,’ she said, and I stared after her in disbelief.

She reached up for a box of cereal at the top of a shelf and I hurried over to get it down for her.

‘Here you go, ma’am.’

‘Thank you, dear. Come and help me carry the milk also,’ she said and I smiled. ‘Cute dimple.’

I finally laughed out right.

‘You’re not really afraid of saying what you think, are you, ma’am?’ I said and she huffed indignantly.

‘Oh, life’s too short to spend on censuring yourself. The green one, please,’ she said and I picked up the green carton of milk for her as I heard the bell ring, indicating a new customer.

‘Boss?’ whoever had entered called.

‘He’s in the back,’ I said to the air. ‘I’ll be with you in a moment, though.’

I heard a snort from the entrance, but nothing more so I assumed the customer went to get something else from another part of the shop.

‘I’m done now, dearie. Let’s go and pay,’ the woman said and hooked her arm in mine. I led her towards the register and rang her wares up. Once she had paid I got the bag for her and followed her to her bus stop.

‘You’re a good kid,’ she said and patted my arm with a small oohing noise as she squeezed my bicep a little, and I had a very hard time to keep from laughing.

‘Thank you, ma’am,’ I said and she nodded.

‘Now shoo. Back to work with you,’ she said, and I turned around to get back into the shop when I realized I’d left another customer there all alone, so I jogged the distance that was left and opened the door to the shop.

Leaning at the counter was the guy from that morning, and he turned his eyes towards me in a glare, and then a lift of his eyebrow. His eyes truly were catching.

‘You treat all things as negligently as this?’ he asked and I sighed, not about to start another fight in the store.

‘How can I help you?’

‘For starters, you owe me money for the vet bill,’ he said and straightened. He was taller than I’d given him credit for, but it annoyed me that he was standing slightly taller than I, giving him the chance to look downwards in order to look me in the eyes.

‘Vet bill?’ I had to ask.

‘For the drip he had to have for dehydration thanks to your chicken liver. He’s allergic,’ he said with a neutral face, but I was sure there was a layer of annoyance there.

‘Damn, I’m sorry, I didn’t…’

‘No, you didn’t. Whatever you were about to say, you didn’t.’ He was obviously angry. Justifiably so, if he was telling the truth, but how had I been supposed to know?

‘Look, I was just trying to be friendly with him,’ I said and moved over to stand behind the counter instead, placing it between us, just in case.

‘Yeah, it’s so friendly, making him vomit the entire morning,’ he said sarcastically.

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know, and I won’t give him anything else,’ I said, genuinely sorry. I’d never meant to hurt the dog. ‘I don’t… have that much money, but how much was it, I’ll pay it off.’

He looked me over with his ocean-blue eyes for a second.

‘Never mind.’ He shook his head, as though exasperated before he threw a pack of gum onto the counter and sighed. ‘A pack of aspirin as well.’

I bent down to find the drawer that held the aspirin, wondering if this guy had been at the barbecue last night, and that’s why he had a headache. Or if it was because he’d had to stay up with his dog for, what I guessed was two mornings in a row, watching it puke. I felt really bad about that.

‘Third on your left,’ the guy said and I moved to the indicated drawer and fished out the aspirin before I rang it up.

‘6.20, please,’ I said and he swiped his credit card to pay. ‘I’m really sorry about your dog, man.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ he answered, and it really wasn’t what I’d been expecting, considering how angry he’d been previously. He gathered up his painkillers and the gum in his hand, immediately opening the box of aspirin, popping one into his mouth before he left for the door.

‘See you around,’ I said before he left without any indication that he’d heard me.

He was still an asshole, but maybe not quite as much of one as I’d initially thought. Poor dog.

The door behind the counter was opened and the old man came out on his new crutches, with a bundle of papers in his hand. I got up to help him but he waved me away.

‘Got your papers here, kid,’ he said and put the papers on the counter and leaned over to grab a pen that he handed for me. ‘Sign them, and you work here.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah, I’m not gonna let anyone that voluntarily cleans up the mess that was in the back room go,’ he said and I laughed as I leafed through the papers. It seemed to be quite a standard contract, with a decent wage.

‘You’ll work from six-thirty until one-thirty, Monday through Saturday. You’ll open the shop, so I expect you to be on time every day.’

‘Got it,’ I said and signed the papers, handing one of the copies to him and put the other in my backpack along with my other belongings.

‘There are a few rules. No fighting in my shop,’ he said and fixed me with a hard gaze.

‘Of course,’ I answered, thinking back to the incident with Mueller, and hoped he only came in during evenings.

‘And your shirt stays on,’ he said, and grinned widely, making me laugh.

‘The old woman from this morning would probably argue with you on that one,’ I said with a smirk and he threw his head back as he laughed loudly.

‘I believe you’re talking about old Brianne,’ he said, and proceeded to tell me the backstory of several of the locals he was sure I was going to meet on a daily basis. Then he gave me the tour of the shop and the back room, where he pointed up the stairs.

‘I live up there, don’t go there,’ he said, and hobbled on his crutches to show me the storage room in the basement.

Before long the bell from the shop sounded again and I made my way back there. Trowa was standing by the counter, his eyes… actually, his eye, because I could only see one behind his fringe, was bloodshot and I smirked.

‘Rough night?’ I asked and he groaned slightly.

‘Housemate’s dog woke us up way too early, vomiting,’ he shared and I frowned, wondering if Trowa and the Japanese asshole were housemate’s. I fished out a bottle of aspirin from the drawer that I now had no trouble finding.

‘I’m guessing this is what you wanted,’ I said and he started to nod, but interrupted himself and closed his eyes.

‘Trowa, did Heero need us to get anything for Zero?’ a call came from behind a shelf and Trowa leaned his head forward with a groan.

‘No. He got everything already,’ Trowa answered, as silently as he could while still making himself heard and I saw a blond guy walking towards us with a wide smile on his face, obviously not affected by a hangover like Trowa appeared to be.

‘Just this, then,’ he said, smiling sweetly as he put two bottles of sunscreen on the counter along with four toothbrushes. ‘I still don’t get why you didn’t just buy this yesterday.’

‘Forgot,’ Trowa muttered and put his arm around the shorter blond who looked at his friend with an affectionate, but amused, look. ‘The aspirin also, please?’

‘I don’t know why I put up with you,’ the blond said but nodded at me to ring up the aspirin on the same tab.

‘And condoms,’ Trowa said, making the blond blush hotly and jab him in the stomach with his elbow. Trowa didn’t loosen his grip around the blond’s shoulders however, but was looking at the blushing blond with a gaze that would have had me wrapped around the guy in a second. I revised my previous thought about them being friends to them being lovers, based on the blond’s reaction, I searched for the drawer that held the condoms.

‘Trowa,’ the blond whispered in an accusing tone and the throaty chuckle that came from the brown-haired guy made me want to laugh.

‘What, you’re always fine when it’s the Boss,’ Trowa whispered back.

‘But he’s not…’

‘So hot?’ Trowa asked and now it was my turn to blush and I read intently on the labels, trying not to listen in on their conversation too much.

‘Trowa!’ the blond exclaimed, probably louder than he’d intended to; Trowa flinched slightly at his side. Finally I found the drawer and withdrew a pack of condoms that I rang up for them.

‘Anything else?’

‘No, all good,’ Trowa said and grabbed the bag as the blond paid using a Gold card, making me raise an eyebrow. He looked a bit young to have set up a fortune on his own, so I immediately labeled him a trust fond kid. He seemed quite nice, however, so I wouldn’t hold it against him.

‘I’m Quatre, by the way,’ the blond said and held out a hand, amazing me. No one had actually bothered to greet me, I’d simply figured out their names through whatever conversation they had or if they paid with credit cart, I just read their names as they swiped it.

‘I’m Duo.’

‘Where you from?’ he asked and blushed. ‘It’s just, I’ve never seen you around before, so if you’ve moved here, I guess… I mean… do you know anyone?’

I smiled widely. No one had asked before, and I guessed that the locals were very protective of their own and tried to keep away from tourists to some extent. Since I started working it probably indicated that I would stick around for a bit, and maybe it would be ok to befriend me then.

‘I’m from Elto, and came here a couple of weeks back. I’m staying until after February at least, possibly longer.’

‘Quatre, let’s go,’ Trowa said, having already gone to the door, holding the handle in a show of impatience.

‘Hey, if you want to join us at the Surf when you get off we’re usually there until the evening.’

‘Thanks man. I’ll swing by if I have the time,’ I said and he nodded and we said our goodbyes.

I had the time, of course, since I didn’t have to scourge for a job anymore. I dug out the contract from my backpack and looked at the signatures in awe. There had been other jobs before this one, but this was the first one where there actually was a contract. And I’d gotten it through simply giving an old man a ride to the hospital.

A hand was slammed down on the counter and I jumped, looking up into the amused face of the owner.

‘You’re done for the day, kid,’ he said and I looked at the watch only to see that it was almost two o’clock.

‘Yeah. Hey, you had some bread that expired yesterday, could I buy some?’ I asked, not looking at Howard, as I put the contract back in its place in my backpack and swung it over my shoulder.

‘Buy some? As if I would sell expired bread,’ he said and huffed indignantly. I removed the bread from where I’d put it under the counter so no other customer would accidentally take the expired food. I sighed, and put the bread on the counter, and was about to step away. ‘You can have it for free.’

I took a breath of relief and stuffed the loaf into my backpack with everything else I had there. Then Howard pulled out his own wallet out of his pocket and pulled out a few bills.

‘Here kid,’ he said, holding them out for me.

‘A hundred bucks? What for?’ I asked, wondering what he was going to ask me to do for them.

‘I need a reason? For driving me to the hospital yesterday, and for helping out at the shop. You did a good job, or I wouldn’t have hired you,’ he said and I was stunned. This normally didn’t happen to me. I wasn’t this lucky.

‘Thanks, Howie, See you Monday.’ I said and accepted the money, putting them into my wallet that had been starved since I’d left the sponsors back in Elto and bought the ticket to the Islands.

‘Yeah,’ he just answered and as the door was closing behind me, I heard him mutter: ‘Howie?’.

It was with light steps I walked back to the shed. Things were looking up, and it felt as though I might survive this after all.

Solo would have been proud.


	3. Aggro

When I got back to the shed after the morning’s work, I took a bite of the bread. It tasted like heaven after weeks of fruit and fish and I had to restrain myself to not finish the whole thing at once. When I’d put it away, I caught up on some well-needed sleep.

It was less than an hour before I wake up, and even though I tried to go back to sleep, it was a pointless endeavor. Since there isn’t much to do in a shed about the size of a thimble, except for sleeping, I climbed outside. Remembering what Quatre had said previously about joining them at the Surf, I headed for the beach. I had no idea where their surfing spot was, so I chose to go to the same spot I used during the nights.

So for the first time since I’d come to the Island, I went up to the beach in broad daylight to look at the surfers. I was only going to look; my board got to stay at the shed, leaning against the side of it.

It was Saturday, with a good wind and a nice surf, so the shores were crowded. There’s a long stretch of straight beach before arriving at my spot, which is a reef break, making the waves a little higher, more hollow, and a lot more dangerous than the long shore. There wasn’t as many people there. Some were in the water on their boards, waiting to catch a wave, and some were sitting on the beach, looking.

I walked a bit closer and deposited my bag on the beach, and sat down cross-legged next to it when a dog rushed up to me. I immediately recognized it as the black Lab from earlier. The same dog that I’d apparently made sick earlier.

‘Oh shit,’ I muttered and absently scratched the dog behind his ear as I looked out over the beach to see if I could find the owner. I couldn’t, so I turned towards the dog and suddenly had a face full of drool after he licked me. I leaned away, laughing, and pushed softly against his nose. I used the hem of my shirt to wide the drool away. It was my last clean shirt and I frowned as I realized I’d have to clean the next day. It wasn’t only my last clean shirt; it was my last shirt. The blood on the other had made it a lost cause.

The dog put his front paws on my legs and lifted his back paw as though he was trying to crawl into my lap, and I laughed.

‘Hey, boy, you’re a bit big for that, you know,’ I said, but allowed the dog to make himself somewhat comfortable in my lap and lie down, his head resting on my knee. I petted him over his side and belly. ‘I’m so sorry for giving you those treats boy. But I’m happy to see you’re fine.’

He just panted in satisfaction and leaned his head back, opening up his neck for me to scratch at.

‘You’ve already met Zero, I see,’ someone said from the side and I looked up, shielding my eyes from the sun. Quatre was standing above me with a surfboard under his arm. He was dripping water, apparently just having gotten out of the sea. He wedged the board into the sand and sat down in its shadow.

‘Yeah, we’ve met a few times,’ I said, not sure if I should tell him I’d obviously been responsible for the dog waking his boyfriend up at sunrise.

‘Heero usually lets him run around on his own.’

‘His name’s Zero?’ I asked, petting the dog idly and Quatre chuckled.

‘Heero calls him Zee, though. But it doesn’t matter what we call him, he only listens to Heero.’

‘He really is an ungrateful cretin then,’ I said, remembering what I’d called him that same morning. ‘You surfing alone?’

‘Not at all. Trowa’s still out with Wufei and Heero,’ he answered and shielded his eyes as he looked out over the water. ‘There!’ he said, pointing towards three surfers in a group, one of them about to catch a wave. I squinted, trying to see if I recognized the one that was committed, but it was too far away to make out faces, and I hadn’t observed them enough to recognize them by body type.

He leaned down as he travelled down the wave, and it started to break above him. He was quite far down already, and was soon covered completely by the tube. I didn’t think he’d get out standing on his board, but just before the wave closed off, he emerged from inside, pumped, and rode over the peak to the other side where he sat down on the board.

‘He’s good,’ was all I said, and Quatre made an agreeing noise.

‘That’s Heero, he’s the best I know,’ he said in such a sad tone that I had to turn and look at him. His eyes were gazing out over the ocean, no longer looking at the surfers, before he shook it off and turned towards me. ‘Don’t tell Trowa I said that.’

‘No worries,’ I said with a chuckle.

‘Do you surf?’ What could I answer to that?

‘Yeah, kind of,’ I answered, and looked down at the panting dog, avoiding looking at Quatre whose eyes I felt in my neck, but he didn’t push it.

‘I heard Trowa has qualified for the Gundams though,’ I said, to lighten the atmosphere and Quatre lit up.

‘Yeah! It’s awesome, he’s never managed it before. Wufei is also close.’

‘What about you?’

‘Oh, I don’t want to compete in the Gundams. I like surfing, but the Gundams just seems so far off. It’s not really my thing,’ he said, and I could see by the tension in his face that there was something else behind it, but I didn’t really know him well enough to ask.

‘Fair enough. You’ll just have to cheer your boyfriend along,’ I said, smirking.

‘Yeah,’ he said before he tensed and looked at me with widened eyes. ‘He’s not… I… I mean…’

‘Chill,’ I said, sorry I’d used the word boyfriend when it appeared to cause Quatre so much grief. At the store, they had seemed to be open about it, and I’d just thought it was fine. ‘If I read you wrong, I’m sorry.’

‘No,’ he said and sighed deeply. His eyes travelled over the ocean and its waves before they locked on the three surfers and he looked back at me again. I knew that feeling of wanting to make sure your friends were all right. ‘You’re right, he is my boyfriend. We were out of line earlier today, I’m sorry.’

‘I have no problems with it,’ I said with a smirk. Considering it would be very hypocritical of me to have any problems with it, of course.

‘We try to keep it discreet. Boss is the only one that knows outside my closest friends, and now you of course.’ He smiled at me and I couldn’t help but returning it. He really was a sweet guy.

‘I’ll keep the secret, I swear,’ I promised, and oofed as a paw was set on my groin and the dog pushed off, tail slapping me in my face as he ran off. ‘Ouch,’ I whined, curling in on myself, as I distantly heard Quatre laugh at my side and he put a hand on my shoulder.

‘Are you all right, Duo?’ he said when he got enough breath between laughs.

‘I’m fine. That dog just loves trying to maim me.’

‘Wha–‘ Quatre began, but was interrupted.

‘You deserve it,’ a voice said and I recognized it immediately as the owner of Zero. The laughter from Quatre died and I heard his say ‘Heero!’ in a shocked voice.

I straightened up, seeing his feet in front of me, and turned my head up as well, so I could look into his eyes. I let my gaze fly quickly over his chest, refusing to be caught staring at his tanned, well-defined body. Refusing to be riveted by the six-pack and his lean waist, and the way his skin sank between his abdomen and his hipbone, drawing a tantalizing line towards his groin.

Oh, shit.

I drew one leg up towards my chest, leaning it slightly against the other and focused on his face, upon which I could see a small smirk, making me wonder what the asshole was going to do or say now.

‘How much was the vet bill?’ I asked harshly, going for intimidating, but probably diminishing my imposing abilities by staying seated. He was obviously surprised however, because he raised an eyebrow before he frowned.

‘Ninety-eight,’ he said and I searched in my backpack to find my wallet from which I grabbed the hundred dollars I’d gotten from Howard earlier, and held them out to him.

‘Take them,’ I said, and was finally able to stand up, my annoyance having made any attraction disappear completely.

‘I don’t want it,’ he said off-handedly and I felt my anger grow even more.

‘Then what the hell do you want?’ I asked, getting into his face. His face was annoyingly neutral; he almost looked bored. ‘Look, your dog is fine. If you wanna keep hounding me about it, you’re welcome to it. I didn’t mean to hurt him, and I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you by making you pay for something I caused. So take the money!’ I said, and held the money out for him. When he just stared at me with narrowed eyes I tired of it. I pressed the money in between the waistband of his trunks and his body and turned around, grabbing my backpack and took long strides to get out of there.

It gave me an odd sense of satisfaction when I heard the dog following me. He caught up and trotted next to me when the Asshole whistled. I smirked when the dog hesitated a moment before he ran back to his owner.

‘Duo!’ Quatre called and ran up behind me, putting his hand on my shoulder and making me stop.

‘Look, I’m sorry,’ I said, frustrated with myself. ‘I’m still not gonna tell anyone about you and Trowa.’ I shrugged his hand off and kept walking away. I knew I shouldn’t have tried to make friends. It was a mistake. It always was.

My life went into a kind of routine for the next week. Surf before sunrise, work for seven hours after that, get back to the shed and eat something before I went out to the Surf to watch everyone. Then it was time to get back to the shed for some sleep, and then repeating it all over again.

I had taken to watching the guys at the Surf, but from atop of the wave breaker where they wouldn’t see me unless they were looking. All of them were really skilled. Quatre had said that Heero was the best one he knew, and he really was good. Scratch that, he was incredible. Every single move that he did was as though it was picked right out of the textbook. I had yet to see him fall. But that was also his greatest weakness. He played it safe, and didn’t go outside of the box. He looked relaxed on the board, but his moves were rigid, not in flow but in expression.

Trowa was the exact opposite. He was everywhere, in the water, and on the board. He was doing handstands, rolls and aerials like nobody else. He had perfect control of the center of gravity on the board during his moves, but still he fell a lot when he was taking it down, making the maneuver lose its weight. The ones he did land however, were pretty close to perfect.

Wufei, the Chinese whom I’d figured out the name of by process of elimination, had aggressive, but surprisingly controlled moves. He took some waves he probably shouldn’t have and had to bail on most of them. On some it paid off but on most it didn’t. When he did catch the wave properly he took chances on his maneuvers, but at least those he had a really good handle off, and during the week I’d been watching them, he’d only botched one maneuver completely, and I knew he’d have no problems qualifying for the Gundams if only he’d be able to catch the waves within the allotted time.

Quatre, his style is more… I don’t know quite how to explain it. Mellow? It’s softer somehow, all smooth lines, each maneuver fluently sliding into the next. Out of the four, I would say that he was the most pleasing to the eye. Well, Heero was more pleasing to look at for other reasons, but for plain surfer abilities, I held Quatre at the top, and he took another step away from the spoiled trust fund kid I’d initially labeled him as.

It was fun watching them. Their moves, especially Trowa’s, gave me a lot of ideas for my own surfing. I couldn’t really try the more risky moves since I was surfing alone at night. Even though I’m usually a bit reckless, I really have no wish to die.

Heero and I had stayed at a mutual distance from each other since our… incident. Our actually, he was probably the one mainly responsible in keeping the distance. He had made sure to stay away from the store, and he’d taken to only whistling for Zero at sunrise again, not coming down to the beach to fetch him.

I had met Quatre and Trowa once more in the shop when they had shopped enough to feed a small army for a week. I didn’t begrudge them, however, and we had actually had quite a nice conversation about absolutely nothing at all. Quatre had been visibly uncomfortable the entire time, which is why I was so surprised when I heard the rocks moving behind me and turned to see Quatre coming my way.

‘Hey, Quat’,’ I said to him and he smiled, sitting down next to me, legs tucked under him rather than letting them hang freely off the edge like me.

‘Hi, Duo,’ he said and threw a worried glance towards the high wave that was coming our way.

‘It won’t reach us with more than a few drops,’ I said, and he tried to calm down, but he still flinched as the water flew up towards us. It sprayed us with drops, but nothing more, and Quatre relaxed a bit.

‘I’m sorry about today, and about last week,’ he said and I turned to look at him in surprise. He looked like he was genuinely sorry and I smiled.

‘You haven’t done anything, Quat’.’

‘I know. But I should have,’ he said with conviction. ‘I’ve never seen Heero like that before. He’s usually very controlled…’

‘Last week wasn’t controlled?’ I asked, amused and astonished. ‘I thought he was about as controlled as they make them.’

‘Yeah, before I knew him better I would have thought the same,’ he answered. ‘He loves that dog, you know.’

‘I’ve noticed,’ I said wryly.

Quatre recoiled as yet another wave broke against the rocks.

‘He was just worried about him, he really never wanted your money.’

‘I got that, but I didn’t want to feel like I owed him anything.’ I didn’t bother telling him that giving Heero that money had effectively made sure I would have to live on expired bread, picked fruits and caught fish for another week. I wasn’t going to ask Howie for advance pay after he’d already given me a hundred.

‘I thought that might have been it. Heero was sure you were simply mocking him,’ he said and I blew out a hard breath from my nose in disbelief.

‘I don’t know him well enough to mock him,’ I said with a grin and Quatre laughed.

‘What are you doing out here, anyways?’ he asked after a while and I pointed towards where Heero, Trowa and Wufei were still surfing.

‘Watching,’ I told him. ‘Learning.’

After I had started coming to the Surf during the days, it had been easier to surf it during the nights. I was learning how the waves behaved, how the sea moved based on how the ground beneath it looked.

‘If you want… I’ll surf with you tomorrow. We can go to Coral Beach if you think the waves here are too rough.’

‘I’m not exactly a beginner, Q’,’ I said, feeling a bit smug.

‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ he said, blushing. He yelped as the next broken wave reached my feet. I could feel the pull of the water and realized it was time to get off the breaker.

‘Let’s go back to the beach, Quat’,’ I said and Quatre flew up as though he’d been waiting for me to ask. I got up at a slower pace and we walked back together.

‘I’m sorry, I just assumed you hadn’t done much surfing. Since I know you’re working during the mornings and I’ve seen you here pretty much the entire afternoon.’

‘It’s all right, buddy,’ I said with a grin and threw my arm around his shoulders. It was something Solo and I had done a lot, and I didn’t realize it might not be an entirely common thing until I felt Quatre tense beneath my hand and I pulled back.

‘Sorry,’ I murmured, but he shook his head.

‘No, it’s fine,’ he said and when we got off the breaker Quatre took a deep breath, relaxing some of the tension in his shoulders.

‘I hate those things,’ he said in distaste and I had to grin.

‘Why?’

‘They are created to break the best surfing waves. And I don’t want to get caught between a wave and the breaker.’

‘You’ve got a point. I love being able to get closer to the seas on them. The power of the water as it rushes up towards my feet and tries to pull me down. It’s huge.’ I heard my own voice go higher with passion and Quatre looked at me with narrowed eyes.

‘Don’t tell me…’ he started warily. ‘You’re here to surf the Rift?’

‘I won’t tell you then,’ I said with a smirk, and he sighed, closing his eyes in despair.

‘It’s dangerous.’

‘So is this,’ I countered and saw as the last three surfers were making their way in, giving me my cue that it was time to leave.

‘Duo, you don’t have to go,’ Quatre said, putting his hand on my arm, and I felt a warmth spread inside of me. This guy was something else, reaching out to me even though his friend of what I assumed was several years hated me. The kindness he showed touched me, but I simply shrugged.

‘I do,’ I said and wrapped my arm around his shoulders again, giving a small squeeze.

‘How about that surf tomorrow, though?’ he asked and I chuckled.

‘I’m not a huge fan of crowds, Q’,’ I said and felt an odd pang in my chest as he sighed softly and looked down on the sand in a dejected look. ‘But yeah, I’ll surf with you tomorrow.’

‘Meet here at noon?’

I threw off a hesitant glance towards the trio that was walking towards us. I didn’t miss the glare on Heero’s face and I thought it might not be the best idea for me to surf at the same place as him.

‘They are all working on Sundays,’ Quatre was quick to explain as he took note of my discomfort and I snorted in amusement at how easily he had figured me out.

‘Here at noon,’ I said and moved off, jogging a little to get away before Asshole joined us.

I hoped this wasn’t going to be yet another mistake.


	4. Wipeout

The waves were still high and wondrous when I came back to the Surf during the night. I briefly considered going to Coral Beach instead but dismissed the idea just as quickly as it had come to me. I had been craving these waves the entire day. Actually, I’d been craving them since I first arrived at Sanc Island, and I wasn’t going to give them up now that I had them in my hand.

It was exciting, seeing the dark wall of water come towering towards me before I pressed on my board to get us both under the wave. When I emerged from under the water, I shook my head to clear my eyes from hair, and kept paddling so I could get out to the zone.

The first wave I caught was tremendous. The pure force under me as it surged me forwards was amazing, and then as I dropped down its side, the speed I was able to acquire was nothing short of breath taking. There would be no tricks, no stunts in these waves, but it didn’t matter. The rush of getting out of it alive was enough. I was there for hours, my heart beating quicker in my chest at every turn.

The orange light of the sunrise was starting to peak above the horizon as I caught a new wave and popped up on the board.

It was wrong.

The wave broke too quickly, with me on the lip, and I just had time to register that I’d gotten too far to the side, too close to the Rift. Then I was tumbling down from the top of the sixteen-foot wave and hit the surface of the water hard.

The forces pushed me under and my shoulder slammed harshly against the rocky bottom of the Rift. My head followed closely, thankfully hitting the rocks with a little less force. I blinked to clear the stars from behind my eyes.

One of the first things you learn is to stay relaxed when a wave is pressing down on you, and that’s what I did. I stayed still until I felt a break in the force, and I pressed my feet against the bottom, pushing myself upwards.

Once more.

Everything was dark, and I couldn’t see where the surface began, but then I felt my head break through and I took a deep gasp before I was drowned again, water filling my mouth.

I fought this time.

I hadn’t gotten enough air, and my lungs were constricting hard. White dots were flying in front of my eyes as I was pushed around under the water. I waved frantically with my arms, hoping to hit the bottom, so I could know which way was up. I didn’t, so I took a stroke, needing to get somewhere, anywhere, if it would help me find my bearings.

I needed air!

The darkness was complete. I had a short moment when I just wanted to open my mouth and breathe. Maybe I could filter the air from the water, like a fish. But then I realized I had no gills and gave one more hard push, hoping I was going in the correct direction.

I could see orange!

One more push and I was above the surface again, taking a gasping breath. I was lucky this time and came out right after the wave, giving me the opportunity to use it to help me in towards the shore. It was still excruciatingly hard to fight my way back, and as soon as I felt ground beneath my knees I buried my hands into the sand and just gasped. A wave washed over my head, but I couldn’t be bothered moving, not even as it tried to pull be back into the dark vastness of the ocean.

‘Come on,’ I heard someone say and my left arm was grabbed and put around the person’s shoulders. Whoever it was put his arm around my back and hooked his hand under my armpit and lifted me, or rather dragged me, out of the water.

I was dumped in an unceremonious heap on the beach, and I couldn’t move. I was just gasping for air, still feeling the pain of lost breath in my lungs.

My rescuer pushed me onto my side and I had a sudden surge of nausea and vomited water. I’d never even noticed I’d swallowed any.

‘Get it out,’ the guy at my side said, and I finally had enough strength to push myself into a somewhat sitting position. I was still gasping for breath, and had to lean forwards to rest on my own legs to be able to keep myself sitting, as I was shaking so hard. I closed my eyes.

Something warm was wrapped around me, and hands were rubbing at my arms.

I’m not sure how long I sat there, with my eyes closed and a stranger’s hands rubbing swiftly all over me. It couldn’t have been long; when I opened my eyes, the sun was still barely peeking above the horizon. I could feel warmth seeping into my limbs.

‘Thanks,’ I said, and flinched at the rough tone of my own voice. A soft breath was exhaled behind me, and the hands stopped moving.

‘You’re something else,’ my rescuer said, and I finally recognized the voice, making me turn around quickly. It almost made me keel over, as dizziness swept over me. He put a steadying hand on my arm and moved to sit next to me instead.

There was a wet feeling from the hand on the opposite side and I looked down to see the dog licking at my hand frantically, whining softly as he did it. How could I have missed it?

‘Hey, boy,’ I rasped out and slowly raised my trembling hand to scratch the dog under his chin. Apparently that was all the sign he needed to try and tackle me to the ground, but Heero whistled sharply, making the dog sit down calmly before it lied down at my side, eyes focused on Heero’s face.

I watched the waters that were now deceptively calm, as a lull had rolled in. I started to chuckle softly.

‘That was… exhilarating,’ I said, and felt Heero tense slightly beside me, before he relaxed.

‘You’re crazy. Who the hell goes surfing in rough seas during night?’

‘Apart from me?’ I asked with as big of a grin as I could muster, and Heero grunted.

‘Point taken,’ he said and we watched the sun go higher, creating a beautiful shimmer over the now nearly calm seas. It was such a huge contrast from how it had just been that I was flabbergasted, and doubting myself. Had the waves really been that big, or had I just been fooling myself?

‘But why?’ he asked after a while in such a pleading voice, begging for a reason that I couldn’t deny him.

‘It’s too… messy during the day. Too many people, too many that can get hurt by my mistakes.’

He looked at me sharply.

‘We manage. We always have. You’re good, Duo. Hell, you’re amazing. You’ve got enough control to not get in anyone’s way.’

‘How do you know?’

‘I’ve… been watching,’ he said, and I felt his shoulder move against mine in a shrug.

‘Really?’ I asked in amazement and he nodded.

‘Zee woke me up every time he decided to get up off the bed in the middle of the night. Eventually, I just followed,’ he said.

He blew out a sharp breath and placed his hands behind himself, leaning backwards. The sun made the little water that still hadn’t dried on his skin sparkle, and I ripped my eyes away from the crevice between his collarbones to lock at his face again. He was watching me with that annoying little smirk again.

‘Asshole,’ I said, and he laughed sharply. I decided that it was a nice sound, and wondered if this kindness he was showing me was only the direct result of me almost having drowned. Maybe he was afraid that, if he left, I would lie down and perish anyways?

‘I didn’t actually see you at first, you know. But I couldn’t call Zee back; he was just sitting on the beach watching something intently. It wasn’t until I heard the sound of a board on the water that I could see a dark spot moving.’

‘When did you arrive?’

‘Around four, I think.’

I laughed and put my now nearly steady hand on top of Zee’s head, scratching him gently behind the ear and he lifted his head slightly, letting his tongue roll out of his mouth.

‘He came as soon as I started then. I always wondered how long he was sitting there for.’

‘I tried to lock Zee in last week, after our… altercation at the beach.’ That’s one way of putting it, I thought. ‘He scratched at the door and howled so loudly that Wufei threatened to throw me out on my ass if I didn’t let him go out.’

I laughed in surprise. Without knowing the guys, it was still something I could imagine Wufei saying, just from having watched him surf.

I felt Heero’s eyes on me and turned to him to find him watching me with wide eyes, and his lips slightly parted. He was gorgeous. And he was turning out not to be as much of an asshole as I had figured. Maybe.

‘I didn’t think you’d go out today, so I didn’t follow him when he left,’ he said in a small voice and he closed his eyes as the sun was glaring him right in his face. I almost didn’t hear him, but I put it together, and waited for him to continue. ‘He rushed into the house. I woke up when the door slammed open, and he dragged me out here.’ He silenced for a moment. ‘I couldn’t see you.’

‘I’m sorry,’ I felt compelled to say for some reason, but he shook his head.

‘I still didn’t think you were here, you know. Not until I saw your board floating, closer to the Rift.’

‘Shit,’ I said, imagining the feeling of seeing a lonesome board after having been rushed down by your dog.

He smirked. ‘Yeah, that’s what I said.’

‘So, Zee was my real savior today?’ I asked and chuckled as I patted the dog, attempting to break the somewhat somber mood that we had set.

‘Yeah, he was your second.’

‘I really need to get him a treat,’ I said, not thinking about what I said until it had already left my mouth. ‘With your approval, of course.’

Heero laughed throatily, and I felt a shiver go through me. It was a nice sound for sure.

‘As long as you let me provide the treats this time.’

‘Anything,’ I said.

The sun was starting to provide some real heat and I shrugged the towel off, hissing as I felt it pull on my left shoulder. I pulled harder and felt how it ripped something from my skin, making me flinch.

‘Shit,’ I muttered and Heero looked towards me, squinting one eye open.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked and pulled himself backwards and into a sitting position. ‘Damn, I missed that.’

I looked over my left shoulder to see the sluggish bleeding from newly opened scabs. A huge amount of sand was caught in coagulated blood, making it look pretty bad. I met Heero’s eyes and we gave each other a small grimace.

‘You hit your head as well,’ he said and reached out with his hand to lift my hair away from my cheek. ‘Do you have a phone? I think we should get you to a doctor.’

‘No need, I feel fine. But I don’t have a telephone either.’

He looked at me with narrowed eyes before he nodded. ‘Wash the sand off first, so we can see how bad it is.’

He got to his feet, Zee immediately following his example. I tried the same, but apparently my legs hadn’t quite stopped trembling yet, and I stumbled ungracefully. He steadied me by a hand on my shoulder.

‘I’ll help you, come on,’ he said, and I put my right arm around his shoulders while he wrapped his hand around my back.

When we started moving I had to focus closely on putting one foot in front of the other.

‘My bag,’ I said, when I remembered about it.

‘I’ve got it,’ Heero said, and I looked at him in surprise. The loss of concentration made me stumble, and he had to fight to steady us both. When we stilled I noticed that he did indeed have my bag thrown over his shoulder, and he even had my board under his arm.

‘Thanks,’ I said and we kept walking until we got to the beach showers. It wasn’t that far, but the walk had felt like a thousand miles. My legs were trembling with the effort of standing up and I placed my hands on the pole in the middle and leaned against it, taking some of the strain off of my legs.

Then cold water was falling over my head and shoulder and I flinched hard enough to fall to my knees.

‘Hey!’ Heero said, putting his hand on my shoulder. ‘I really want you to get checked out by a doctor.’

‘No. I’m fine,’ I said, and I’m sure Heero thought I was being stubborn. I was, but that wasn’t really the point. I couldn’t afford risking a visit to the doctor anyways.

‘Sure you are,’ Heero said sarcastically, but started to gently rub the sand away from my shoulder under the chilling spray of the water. It didn’t really matter how gentle he was, because it hurt. A lot!

‘You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?’ I asked after a while and he huffed.

‘You made me wake up at five a.m. last Saturday after a perfectly fine barbecue. Yes, to some extent, I am enjoying this.’

‘I knew it,’ I said, amused. ‘Asshole.’ I added with a grin, and flinched when he peeled away some skin together with the sand.

‘Sorry.’

‘You don’t sound sorry,’ I told him but he just kept working on my shoulder until he finally stopped and I looked at it.

Despite the stinging pain, it didn’t look too bad. Some skin had been removed, but it really amounted to nothing more than a larger scab. It made me feel more than a little silly about my fuzzing.

I thought he was finished, but then he took a hold of my head and made me look up as he lifted my wet hair away from the gash that he said was there. I didn’t feel it.

‘It doesn’t look too bad. There’s no sand in it, and it’s really quite small,’ he said. ‘Where do you live? I’ll go get my car and drive you.’

‘I’ll be fine here. You’ve got work today, right? I’ll get home on my own.’

‘You can’t even stand,’ Heero said, and he had me there, but I looked away. I wasn’t about to show Heero where I lived.

‘Fine, you’re coming home with me,’ he said, and I turned to him in amazement. ‘You can rest there until you’re better. Come on.’

What had happened to suddenly make him act like this? I’d had some luck resisting the guy when I’d thought him a complete asshole. If he proved to be nicer than I’d though, I wasn’t so sure I would manage.

He leaned down and I threw my arm around his shoulders again. The warmth of his skin against mine was a nice feeling and I pressed myself closer as he maneuvered to get my board back under his arm.

We went over the small grassy hill close to the Surf and there, there was a house with a workshop attached to it. I hadn’t seen it before and my mind momentarily told me it was magic before I rationalized that I just hadn’t gone farther west than the Surf in my venture for the best waves.

Zee ran in through the door ahead of us and when we stepped inside I heard a weird noise, and had to look up. Quatre was standing in front of us, sandwich in hand, with his mouth open. He dropped his sandwich. I’m not sure he noticed it himself.

‘Duo! What happened?’ he exclaimed and came to meet us. ‘What did you do?’ he asked, glaring at Heero who shook his head.

‘Don’t blame me. This one is all on Duo.’

‘It’s true, Quat’,’ I said and Quatre gave us both a chilly glare with his frosty blue eyes before he walked in front of us and held open a door.

‘My room? It’ll get bloody,’ Heero complained, but led me in through the door that Quatre was holding open before he gently helped me sit down on the bed.

‘Get out of your trunks and sleep before you go home,’ he said and left.

I looked up to see Quatre still standing by the door, looking at me thoughtfully.

‘We might have to cancel that surfing at noon,’ I said, pulling Quatre out of his thoughts and he smiled.

‘Don’t worry about it. Feel better,’ he said and backed out, pulling the door halfway closed and I suddenly felt very tired. Apparently, that’s what happened when you’d nearly managed to drown. I’d been through it once before. That time I’d lost my best friend, my brother in all but blood.

I barely managed to crawl my way out of my clothes.

I don’t think my head had even hit the pillow before I was asleep.


	5. Crush

It was painful to wake up. The memory of the water crushing me was fresh in my mind and I’d had nightmares about Solo. My body was aching, especially my left side, but over all, I felt a lot better than I had expected to. There was no headache, and I had stopped trembling.

A knock came and Quatre’s head peeked in through the opening in the doorway. He smiled when he saw I had my eyes opened.

‘Hey, Duo. How do you feel?’

‘Like I’ve been crushed by a wave,’ I said wryly and sat up in the bed, at which point I realized I was buck-naked. I quickly grabbed a hold of the blanket and pulled it over myself. Quatre politely looked away with red cheeks, but he wore an amused smile, which made me doubt the show of politeness.

‘I’m making lunch, would you like some?’ he asked. My stomach rumbled demonstratively at the mention of food, making me blush and Quatre laugh. ‘I’ll take that as a yes.’

‘Yeah, please,’ I said and leaned down to pick up my trunks from the floor.

As soon as Quatre had left I pushed the blanket away and got dressed. The trunks were still damp, and uncomfortable to put on. I needed to find where Heero had disposed of my backpack, so I could find my other pair of boardies.

I turned to make the bed and frowned when I saw small spots of blood on the sheets and the pillow, making me groan and rip the stuff out of the bed. Heero had been right after all, and I figured it best not to anger the man after the halfway decent conversation we’d had during the morning.

‘Quat’,’ I called as I went out of the room.

‘Here,’ he answered and I turned in the direction of his voice. He was standing with his back against me in a small kitchen area. He had one pot on the stove, and was cutting vegetables into small cubes.

‘Hey, do you have someplace I can wash these?’ I asked, holding up the bundle in my arms, even though he couldn’t see me, and he pointed with the knife over his shoulder. He aimed a door, which I opened and walked inside of. I found myself in a very small room, containing only a washing machine and a tumbler. I loaded the washing machine up with the white sheets and remembered that I needed to wash my own white t-shirt as well.

‘Quat’, would it be ok if I add some of my stuff to the wash?’

‘Sure.’

‘Do you know where Heero dumped my backpack this morning?’

‘It’s on the chair,’ he said and I made my way to it, fished out my t-shirt and my second pair of trunks before going back to the small room where I closed the door. I changed trunks and threw the t-shirt into the washing machine.

‘There’s still some room, you have anything you need washed, Q?’ I said, opening the door again.

‘Nope,’ he answered and I took a measure of detergent, added it and started the machine before I went back to help Quatre cook.

‘What can I do?’

‘It’s finished in a minute, just grab three plates from the cabinet and forks are in the drawer below.’

‘Three?’ I asked as I took the plates and cutlery out and put them on the counter.

‘Trowa works at Legends,’ Quatre said, and it took me a moment to realize he spoke of the workshop I’d seen attached to the house. ‘Speaking of which, could you tell him lunch is ready? The door over there.’ He pointed at a door at the end of a hall.

‘Sure,’ I said, knocked on the door to make sure no one was standing in the way and opened it.

The shop was a lot bigger than I had expected, with surfboards every which way you looked. Some were dinged, and I assumed they were in for repairs. The only thing apart from surfboards seemed to be a small assortment of wax.

‘Morning, Duo,’ Trowa said, and I jumped, not having noticed him, making me look over the shop again. He peeked up from behind the counter. ‘You look like shit.’

‘Thanks, man,’ I said in amusement and looked down at my bare shoulder where scabs had formed nicely. Only then did I notice that bruises were coloring my skin in different degrees over my shoulder, and as far over my back as I could see. ‘Whoa.’

‘Whoa? Sounds apt,’ he said drily as he locked the front of the store and we went back to the kitchen.

‘Oh my God, Duo!’ Quatre exclaimed when we stepped in and I blinked, surprised.

‘What?’

‘You look awful!’ he said and I blew out a harsh breath, and Trowa sniggered. How he had managed not see it while I was loading the washing machine and taking out plates went beyond me, but then again, he’d been quite focused on cutting the food up.

‘Yeah, Tro’ said pretty much the same,’ I told him as I took my backpack’s place at the chair.

‘Does it hurt?’ he asked, still looking at me with wide eyes.

‘Nah, I’m just a bit stiff, but I feel fine,’ I said, rolling my arm demonstratively, and he looked at me in disbelief.

‘What did you do anyways?’ Trowa asked as he filled his plate up with noodles, fish and veggies.

‘’Ro didn’t tell you?’ I asked and Trowa raised an eyebrow.

‘ _’Ro_ ,’ he said, putting emphasis on the nickname, ‘didn’t tell me anything.’

‘I wiped out in a wave. I caught it badly and ended up on the top of the lip,’ I said and shrugged before I started filling up my plate as well.

‘Were you out at sunrise?’ Quatre asked, his brows furrowed, and I didn’t think he’d like it if I told him I’d gone out at night. The sun had just become visible over the horizon when I’d caught the last wave after all.

‘Yeah, it’s awesome,’ I said. ‘You can get every wave to yourself, and the light on the water during sunrise is stunning.’ I took my first bite of the food. ‘Quat’, this is amazing!’

He blushed.

‘It’s just basic,’ he said and I shook my head.

‘It’s perfect! I’ve been living on bread for way too long,’ I said with a wide grin. The frown on both of their faces had me realize I probably should have kept my mouth shut and just enjoyed the food. ‘Hey, Quat’, do you still wanna go surfing?’

‘Yeah, but…’ he said and bit his lower lip.

‘It’s fine, I can take some small waves,’ I said, and he smiled widely.

‘Borrow a longboard from the shop, it should make it easier on your shoulder when paddling,’ Trowa said, and I frowned. I really liked my own board, but he did have a point.

‘Maybe,’ I said cautiously and took another bite of the food. ‘How much?’

‘I said borrow, not rent,’ Trowa said with a smirk, not even looking at me, and I nodded.

‘Yeah, sure.’

‘How are the swells?’ Quatre asked.

‘Five to six at the Surf. Around three at Coral,’ Trowa answered quickly. I’d seen the screens with the information at the shop

‘We’ll go for Coral, I think,’ Quatre said without asking me, and I was just as happy for it, not really feeling up to surf barrels that I had to bend down too far to get under after my tumble that morning. ‘Do you want to join, Trowa?’

‘Nah, I’ll come by in a couple of hours if you’re still there. I’ve got a board I want to finish today.’

We finished our lunch quickly and did the dishes. Then I headed into the shop where Trowa showed me the rentable longboards.

‘Hey, you sure you don’t want me to pay for it?’ I asked as I took it under my arm.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ he said and I was grateful, but I did hate charity. Thing was, I wasn’t sure if this was charity, or just kindness towards a new friend. ‘Quatre’s been ecstatic since yesterday, he really wanted to go surfing with you.’

Ah, now it made sense. I wasn’t about to complain that I was gaining from his wanting to keep his boyfriend happy.

‘Thanks, man,’ I said and left the shop with the board, meeting up with Quatre outside.

‘We’ll take the car, I want to keep your strength for surfing,’ he said, nodding towards a jeep, car keys dangling from his fingers.

‘Perfect,’ I said and lifted the board into the back of the car, wincing as the move pulled at my shoulder. That move would have been easier with my board as it was lighter, but I definitely wouldn’t have been able to paddle with enough speed to manage a single popup.

There was a lot of people at the beach, and a lot of surfers in the water, making me swallow. It had been months since I’d surfed when there were a lot of people around. Heck, it had been months since I’d surfed with _any_ people around. Why did I agree to this anyways?

Looking at the surfers, there were a few beginners out there as well, and I’d have to be even more observant than usually. Maybe beginner was pushing it, the yellow flag was flying after all, but that didn’t mean some beginners weren’t going to go out. Challenging yourself is a great way of getting better after all.

I had to challenge myself. I’d said I’d do it, so there was no turning back.

‘Are you sure you’re okay?’ Quatre asked, giving me an out, looking at me cautiously.

‘Yeah, let’s get to the lineup. You okay with catching the rip?’ I asked. I’d seen him catch the rip current at the Surf to get a quicker ride out to the lineup, so I thought it was a safe bet he’d be fine with it here as well.

‘Yeah, let’s go,’ he said with a wide smile and we were soon paddling our way out.

It was great to be in the blue water again. It isn’t the same during the night; the visual beauty of the sea doesn’t make itself known, and all you know is the power and the danger. During full moon it’s better, but nothing can compete against surfing during the day.

I watched as Quatre nimbly caught his first wave of the day. He gracefully popped up in that fluent motion of his, making me doubt he had to consume any energy at all doing it.

I started paddling on the next wave and popped up. Another kid had caught it as well, but he was lying on his board, obviously intending to ride the wave in to the beach.

‘Dude,’ I called to gain his attention and he looked to his side, eyes widening as he noticed me. He was right in my path, and I easily turned back on the wave, to give him some time to move away a bit. I looked behind me to make sure he was gone before turning back around and continuing to ride the wave.

It was kind of nice to stand on a longboard again. It didn’t require as much focus as the shortboard, and I even dared to try one or two of the tricks I’d seen Trowa do on his shortboard. I laughed cheerfully as I neatly ended up next to Quatre who was also smiling widely.

‘Let’s get back,’ he said immediately and we caught the rip again to catch more waves. It was fun, to surf with someone again, and I realized how much I’d really missed it. How much I’d missed the easy camaraderie that evolved in the water.

We were catching waves for about an hour before my shoulder was objecting enough for me to want a bit of a rest and we headed back up onto the beach. We wedged our boards up and lay down on the warm sand. I put a bundled up towel behind my head and saved my braid from the sand through laying it over my shoulder and over my abdomen.

‘I have to admit I’m a bit relieved,’ Quatre said after a while and I turned my head to watch him, one eye closed to not have the sun blind me.

‘Yeah?’

‘Yeah, I might’ve had some… doubts, regarding whether or not you could surf.’

I laughed, but I understood him, since I hadn’t gone into the water once, as far as he’d known.

‘And could I?’

‘Yes!’ he said, laughing, and he sat up to look down at me. ‘You were doing some great moves out there.’

‘I stole them from Tro’,’ I said with a grin.

‘I thought so.’ Obviously he would recognize his boyfriend’s moves.

‘I’ve been wanting to try them, but I don’t have the skill to do even half of them on a shortboard. So this kind of fit perfectly.’

‘How’s your shoulder, though?’

‘It’s not too bad, really. It’s a bit stiff, but it gets better when I’m moving it,’ I said, sat up, and started rolling my arm around to demonstrate that I had no problems moving it, when I heard a loud bark from behind us. A black dog in a red life vest was barging towards us.

‘Zee!’ I called in surprise, and he stopped right in front of us, pushing his head against my hand, almost begging me to scratch him behind his ears. ‘You’re such a suck-up,’ I told him, but scratched him anyways.

‘Hi, Heero,’ Quatre said and I looked up.

He had red trunks on, and a rescue can in his hand, which I immediately translated to lifeguard.

‘I’m sorry for making you work overtime this morning,’ I said with a smirk and hugged the dog with one hand as he stepped closer to me. He gave me a sloppy lick on my cheek.

‘Hn,’ Heero grunted and I grinned wider. ‘You look…’ his eyes swept over my body, making me blush hotly, ‘…good.’

Apparently he was still a bit of an asshole, which saddened me, because I’d really enjoyed our talk at the beach that morning. I figured he was teasing me about the obvious reaction I’d had to his body the previous week, and it kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

‘Wow, thanks,’ I said ironically and he raised his eyebrows in surprise, making me stop myself from saying a cutting remark, because he looked confused, and if he’d meant to tease me he shouldn’t have been so surprised at an ironic answer. Right?

‘Excuse me,’ someone said from the side, and we all turned to him. He looked quite young, maybe around twelve or so, and he looked incredibly uncomfortable, as though he’d rather be anywhere else than here. Actually, when I looked closer, I recognized him as the kid that had been on my wave earlier.

‘What’s up, kid?’ Heero asked kindly, hunching down to be on the kid’s level. Obviously his lifeguarding instincts were kicking in, and I wondered if that had been all it was that morning as well.

‘Um, actually, I…’ he hesitated and looked at me, and bit his lip. ‘I-wanted-an-autograph,’ he said quickly and took a deep breath, holding out his surfboard as well as a paper for me, and a marker.

I’d been out of the pro world in Elto for weeks, and I hadn’t thought I’d meet anyone on Sanc who’d know who I was. The wide-eyed looks I saw on both Heero’s and Quatre’s faces made me blush as I accepted the surfboard and lay it over my knees. Then I put the magazine on top and recognized it as an old issue of Surf’d where I’d been featured in the mid-section so I opened it up on that page.

‘Here?’ I asked, pointing to the bottom of it, where there was just some water in the photo. He nodded.

‘To Mickey Mouse, please. And you’ll write Reaper, right?’ the kid asked, and I only barely managed to avoid rolling my eyes at the nickname.

Nicknames tend to stick, especially in the surfing world. In my case, I’d been unfortunate enough to have my very first heat in a pro competition be interrupted by a shark. I hadn’t even seen it in the water, and the fin of my board had cut its head straight open. Luckily for me, the shark had died; I’d fallen off my board when it stuck to the shark. Someone had thought _Reaper_ a fitting nickname, and once it had been said, it travelled, and it stuck.

‘Of course,’ I said and I scratched it out on the paper, and then on his board, complete with a small set of bones beneath my signature. ‘Don’t put it in the water for a few hours if you wanna keep that, alright Mickey?’

‘I won’t! Thank you so much! I’m gonna tell all my friends in Elto!’ he said, looking so ecstatic that I had to laugh. ‘Hey, you’ll be back for Gundams, right?’ he asked then, and I stopped laughing.

‘I… we’ll see, there’s still a while left,’ I answered, and he looked at me sadly for a moment, before he smiled again.

‘I’ll cheer for you if you compete. Thanks for the sign!’ he said, and ran off down the beach to his parents where he proceeded to point me out and tap at the signature.

‘You’re… a pro?’ Quatre asked after a while of silent stupor, and I shrugged.

‘I quit competing a while back, and came here with the last of my money.’

‘Why?’ Heero asked coldly and I looked down in the sand. I liked these guys, really, I did. But I wasn’t exactly ready to share my life’s ups and downs with them.

‘I just didn’t have it in me anymore, I guess,’ I answered and felt Heero’s intense gaze on me. I hoped he’d just let it go. He did, but he didn’t say anything more regarding anything before he left us to get back to his tower, taking Zee with him.

‘Well, that was awkward,’ I said to Quatre after Heero had left.

‘He… doesn’t really like pros.’ No shit? ‘Thinks they’re selling themselves.’

‘They’ve also got to live,’ I answered, but I’d had pretty much the same feeling when I’d started. It wasn’t anything like that though. It was a job, like any other, and it costs quite a lot to travel around for the competitions. You’re not even guaranteed a payout for it so most pros have sponsors. I was no different

‘Believe me, I know. I haven’t told you, I guess, but my full name is Quatre Raberba Winner.’

Winner. I’d heard it somewhere, if I could only remember…

‘Winner! Zayeed Winner?’ I asked and he nodded. Zayeed Winner had been one of the best pro surfers until about twenty or so years back, when his wife had died at childbirth. After that he’d gone into manufacturing business, creating the Winner Corporations that made surf gear. They had actually been on my list of potential sponsors right before Solo had died.

‘He’s my father.’

‘Damn,’ I said, idly wondering how old Quatre was.

‘You don’t know the half of it. It sucks a bit, having an ex pro surfer as a father. He’s still always travelling, and he never thinks I’m good enough.’

‘Q’, you’re great at surfing.’

‘He would disagree,’ Quatre said with a roll of his eyes. ‘I’ve never wanted to go pro, and I think it irks him. We’re not really talking to each other anyways, so I’ve stopped caring what he thinks.’

‘You’re not talking because you don’t want to go pro? Don’t take me wrong, but that seems a bit… petty.’

Quatre sighed and curled his legs together, wrapping his arms around them in a very protective position, making me frown.

‘He… disagrees with my… choice in partners.’

I sighed.

‘Trowa?’

‘Oh no, he’s never met Trowa, thank God. I’d be afraid of what he’d do to get him away from me, like he did with my first boyfriend.’

‘I’m so sorry, Q’,’ I said, not needing to hear anything more about exactly what his father had done. Quatre’s sad tone said enough.

‘I’m over him,’ he said with a small, forced smile. ‘I’ve been working at my sister’s law firm since I moved away from the mansion into the Safe house.

‘Safe house?’ I asked, intrigued.

‘Heero’s house,’ Quatre answered with a grin. ‘The four of us have known each other for ages, and then all of us came into some trouble at about the same time. It led us to move into the house that Heero had recently inherited. It became a safe haven for all of us. So we call it the Safe house.’

‘Cool that it worked out,’ I said and Quatre nodded and looked out over the ocean for a while. I’m not sure what he was thinking about, but he soon snapped himself out of it, and looked at me with shining eyes and a grin that was a little too wide.

‘You wanna catch a few more waves?’ he asked, and I flew to my feet.

‘Race ya,’ I called, grabbed the board and sprinted towards the ocean before he had time to react.

‘Cheater!’ was called after me and I just laughed as I entered the water.

This was life.


	6. Surf's Up

There were a lot of comments the next week at the shop regarding my black and blue body. Most of them came from Howard but a few customers bemoaned it as well. Brianna, the old lady that had become a regular customer of mine that came in every day, had been especially upset with me. She hadn’t let me get back to work until I had promised to try and stay on my feet while surfing. It was a promise I was happy to make, since I always tried to stay on my feet.

Thankfully, no one had asked me to stop surfing during the nights. The waves hadn’t gone over six feet since the Saturday, and it had been decently safe going out even at night. It’s never completely safe, not even during the day. But you can minimize the risk. Zero still came out to meet me when I finished, but I didn’t see Heero again. He didn’t even call his dog back anymore.

I continued to keep away from surfing during the day, not liking the crowds. Though I still headed to the Surf after work to watch them, I didn’t join, despite Quatre’s urging. Heero hadn’t spoken to me again, after finding out I was a pro. It was pretty annoying, because just for a moment there, I’d actually thought he was kind of nice and had let myself think about what else we could have done together.

On the Friday, the wind was gusting just right, and there had been reports of waves at fifteen feet when I left the shop. The forecast for the evening was at twenty feet, which would have been awesome conditions during the day, but not even I was stupid enough to go at it again during the night. So once I’d gotten back from the shop, I had hesitated only for a second before I took my surfboard under my arm and walked to the Surf.

‘Duo!’ It sounded weak and faraway, so I looked out over the waters.

Quatre waved from the lineup, and I was surprised that he’d managed to see me. There were a lot of people at the small strip of beach, but quite few in the lineup. There were ten people out there, and it was more than I would have liked when the conditions were gnarly. Especially when I’d gotten to know four of them.

‘Come on!’ Quatre cried, waving both his arms towards him and I laughed.

Then he was paddling for the wave and popped up, riding it neatly as it turned into a barrel. It enveloped him, and for a moment I thought he’d miss it, but then he came out with the spit, languidly continuing forwards. He looked towards the beach and the sun made his blond hair look golden. He waved happily, and I waved back with a huge smile that had grown on my face since I saw him catch the wave. My heart was racing.

I wanted to be out there. I wanted to hit the waves and ride in the pipes. I wanted to fly!

The water lapped at my feet and I looked down at the green surface, surprised that I had moved.

‘Nothing else to it, I guess,’ I muttered to myself and padded in to my knees before I got onto the board to paddle into the lineup.

‘Newbie alert!’ someone called and I avoided looking that way.

There are many reasons to dislike locals. The territorial instinct is one of them. In Elto, I’d been much the same, feeling as though I owned every wave, and not trusting any new guys to be good enough to ever be able to catch one. The worst was when they tried for the best waves, and then they wiped out late enough that it was uncatchable for anyone else.

I hung at the outside, rolling with the waves. It was pure pleasure to watch as the others caught the waves. It was only slightly distracting when I heard some of them laugh at me. I tried not to listen as they gave me the advice to just get out and go to Coral if I wasn’t going to try for anything anyways.

Then the guy that had been trying to catch the wave tumbled down and I paddled into it. It was fast, and I thought I’d lost it, but then there was a surge of power and I felt the board take speed. I popped up, and rode the wave down. It barreled around me and I reached out with my hand to touch the water. Finally, there was a rainbow in front of me and I heard myself laugh. I hadn’t seen one in months.

The wave was barreling from the other side as well and I pumped. Once. Twice. Then I was flying over the shoulder, with my hand on the edge of my board before I landed on the other side and let myself drop off the board, and into the water. I gave a shout in glee before getting back on top of the board and paddling into the lineup again.

I’d missed this. I’d missed it so bad. I’d missed the green and blue of the ocean, the rainbows showing in the spray of the whitewash. But then I thought about Solo and felt kind of guilty, that I was able to live such beauty even after I’d taken that joy away from him.

I shivered, even though the water was warm and saw another surfer take a tumble down a wave. It was a beaut, and I began paddling for it and popped up just as I saw someone on the outside. He was just committing to the wave and gave me a smirk over his shoulder. It was my wave, but this guy wasn’t going to let me have it. I leaned forward, riding the speed to break out, when something flew at me in my peripheral vision.

I pushed my hand into the water behind me and turned around with a cutback, feeling the object fly by behind me, and I turned again to be able to get out of the wave before it closed up on me. There was a black spot in the water and all it could be was a person. I swiftly cut away, straight into the falling lip that hit me hard in the back, pressing me down against the board.

For a moment, I thought I could save it, but it was to heavy, and I was pushed under.

There’s a huge difference between being pushed under at night, and during day. In parts, it is the same. You tumble without control, you follow the flow of the wave. If you’re unlucky at the Surf, you hit the reef. But during day, you can see a light. There’s a way of knowing if you’re swimming towards salvation, or death.

I aimed for the light, and broke the surface with a shake of my head and looked around for my board. It floated just a bit away from me, still in one piece, so I grabbed it, got on, and paddled back to the lineup.

‘Are you ok?’ Wufei asked as I joined up.

‘Yeah, I’m good. Who was it that cut in on me?’

‘Alex, he’s a bit of an ass,’ he said and I laughed.

‘Yeah, I noticed.’

‘I’m heading up after this wave, join us,’ he said and started to paddle for the wave.

Shit. He called his last wave. How stupid could he be? I wanted to call after him, but knew it would only mess up his focus, so I shut up.

He caught the wave spectacularly, went into the trough, and I lost him. It was normal, I told myself. It’s not possible to see through the wave, I couldn’t be sure that he’d fallen. So I skipped two great waves as I waited for Wufei to be visible again.

He came out with the spit, and straightened up, hitting his closed fist into the sky in silent jubilation. I exhaled deeply and looked backwards to see if any waves were coming when something roughly turned my board over, making me fall into the water and take a breath of it in surprise.

I broke the surface, coughing to get rid of the water, and grabbed onto my board.

‘What the hell, man?’ I asked, recognizing the man as the one who’d dropped in on me on the last wave.

‘You almost fucking killed me out there!’ he said and reached down towards my face.

I grabbed onto his wrist and twisted hard, making him grunt in pain and fall off his own board.

‘ _You’re_ the on that dropped in,’ I growled, not really wanting to go through this in twenty-foot seas, so I swung onto my board and dove under the water to get away from him.

‘Fucking pansy-ass!’ he yelled when I emerged, but then he paddled out, catching a wave, and I was left alone in the waters.

The way it should be.

I briefly considered just staying out there, but realized Quatre would come and get me if I did. So I turned, and I waited for the next wave.

It surged quickly, I’d come out just at the edge of the reef below. It barreled around me and I rode its power, pushing to get my speed up, fighting to stay ahead of it, even as I saw it closing up in front of me. I crouched down further to stay below the fall. Water from the foam ball sprayed passed me, and then I flew out of the small hole that the wave left for me.

I pumped both my fists towards the air and shouted happily as I straightened up. That was awesome.

I rode the board as far as I could before getting into the water and walking up onto the beach with the board under my arm.

‘’Fei!’ I called to the Chinese as soon as I got close enough and he lifted an eyebrow, looking back at me. ‘You don’t call your last wave, buddy!’

He blinked before he let out a noise of amused disbelief.

‘I wouldn’t have expected you to be superstitious,’ he said with a smirk.

‘Only with the things that count,’ I answered and wedged the board in the sand and sat down next to him.

‘You’re good,’ he said then and I looked at him in surprise, before I remembered that he hadn’t seen me surf before.

‘Thanks, ‘Fei. So are you. When’s the qualifier, by the way?’

‘This Sunday, at Coral,’ he said, picking at the sand between his legs.

‘You’ll do fine. You didn’t take a single fall today.’ Actually, I’d been surprised, until I’d realized he fell more at waves in the eight to twelve foot range. ‘You just need to learn to read the smaller waves as well as these.’

He looked at me with his brows furrowed.

‘Quatre says the same.’

‘Because it’s true,’ Trowa said from behind us and put a beer against Wufei’s shoulder, which he took with a grateful smile.

‘Here, Duo,’ Quatre said, holding out a beer for me as well, and I hesitated. For all my shortcomings, I’ve never really drunk anything with alcohol before. On the streets as a kid, it wasn’t very smart to get drunk, and when I’d become a pro, my money had gone towards other things.

‘He can’t have any,’ Heero said and snatched the beer out of Quatre’s hand. It made a hissing noise as he opened it and he leaned his head back to take a chug. His Adam’s apple moved in his throat as he swallowed and I was entranced by its movement, until he took the bottle away from his mouth. The tip of his tongue came out to catch whatever residue was still on his lips, and I felt blood travel downwards in my body, making me tear my eyes away and lean over myself slightly to hide any trace of my attraction.

‘What? Heero!’ Quatre said in an accusing tone.

‘He’s underage,’ Heero just said and Quatre looked at me with wide eyes. I shrugged.

‘My birthday is in just a few months, though,’ I said, as though defending myself.

‘Like you didn’t drink as a minor,’ Quatre said with an exasperated voice as he sat down on my right side, and Heero smirked. I looked at him thoughtfully as I realized he had looked up information on me. I wondered why.

He and Trowa sat down on the edges, Trowa next to Quatre, and Heero next to Wufei, putting me in the middle. It felt nice, this silent camaraderie. Then I felt Wufei tense up next to me, and I looked at him. He was watching something ahead and to the left, and I followed his gaze.

The guy that had fought me in the water, Alex, and the prick that couldn’t wait in line were walking towards us. Mueller, I thought his name was.

‘Reaper? What’d you do to get that name, huh?’ Alex asked, and Mueller laughed obediently next to him.

I sighed.

‘You sure you wanna know?’

‘Oh, you’re trying to be scary?’ Mueller said in a childish voice, attempting to make fun of me.

‘Just get out of here, Alex,’ Wufei said, jaw clenched.

‘This kid almost killed me out there,’ Alex said, pointing at me.

‘You dropped in on him,’ Heero said, and I frowned. What did he stand up for me for?

‘He’s an outsider!’ Mueller said, rage coloring his last word.

‘It’s a free country,’ I said with a shrug.

‘Shut up,’ Quatre hissed at me, and I turned to him quickly, not having expected him to say that. ‘They’re jerks, but don’t egg them on,’ he said silently, and got to his feet. ‘Let’s head out.’

‘Yeah, take the coward with you!’ Alex leered and kicked up some sand in our faces.

‘Who’s the coward, exactly?’ I asked as I got to my feet slowly. ‘You bailed on that wave. Was it too much for you? It must have been so painful for you to see me carve it perfectly.’

‘You dick!’ he called and flew forwards, towards me. I had kind of been expecting it, so I stepped to the side and forwards, and grabbed the arm that he’d extended for the punch. His bodyweight took care of the rest, and he was lying on the sand, blinking in surprise before he understood what had happened. He rushed up again.

‘Duo!’ Quatre said angrily, but then he took a step in between Alex and me. ‘Get lost, Alex. This is our beach.’

It made me frown, but Alex raised his lips in a sneer, and then spat at Quatre’s feet, before he looked over Quatre’s shoulder and straight into my eyes.

‘We’ll see who’s a coward. We’ll both enter Rift Wars!’ he said and I sighed deeply.

‘Fine,’ I said. ‘You better learn how to ride those waves until then.’

Quatre stepped up and placed a hand on my shoulder to make me turn around and walk away. Leaving my back towards Alex and Mueller made every hair in my neck stand at attention, but they didn’t try anything, and I was led to the Safe house.

‘Shit!’ I said as I understood just what I’d agreed to, and I leaned my board against the stand outside of the house.

‘Just don’t enter,’ Quatre said, as though it was the easiest thing in the world, and led me to the chairs on the porch where the other guys were already seated.

‘I can’t not enter now. I don’t lie.’

‘You don’t lie?’ Trowa asked with a voice pitched in surprise and held back laughter. He wasn’t so good at holding back the laughter however; as it fled from him once he’d finished his sentence.

‘I don’t.’

‘So enter.’ Wufei said. ‘You can handle the Rift, I’m sure of it.’

‘Yeah, but to enter the Rift Wars, I have to enter Gundams,’ I said, and they nodded in agreement.

‘There are still three qualifiers left,’ Trowa said and I shook my head.

‘That’s not it. I’m qualified, but as a Pro,’ I said silently, and Wufei looked at me in surprise. Trowa didn’t seem to be fazed at all by the news, and I figured Quatre had already told him.

‘So? What’s the issue?’ Wufei asked, as though that had solved everything. Maybe it did. But the main point was actually the cost. It was a lot more expensive as a Pro than an Amateur. You had more to win as well, of course.

‘Yeah, I just…’

‘It’s too expensive,’ Quatre said, looking at me intently and I shrugged in embarrassment.

‘Yeah, it’s 500 bucks for Pros that has to be in by the end of this month,’ I said, and leaned back in the chair, looking upwards at the cloudy sky. ‘I’ll figure it out, though.’

It would be tight, but I could do it. I just had to keep living like I had been for a while. Fish and bread was quickly becoming hated food on my list.

What had I gotten myself into?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since my vacation is now over, I'll try to post updates on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Hopefully I'll manage to stick to it :D


	7. Sea Breeze

The waves were still thundering towards the shore during the night. The full moon lit up the waters with a silvery glow, making it look ethereal when the whitewash spread. Solo would have loved it, and would have told me some story about whichever guardian was watching the waters during night. I took a step forwards to feel the warmth of the water on my feet.

‘Please, don’t,’ was said softly behind me.

I turned my head to see Heero standing a few paces away with Zero sitting at his side. It took me a moment before I realized what he was referring to. I was standing at the edge of the water with my surfboard under my arm, and had just taken a step forwards, towards the crashing waves.

‘I won’t,’ I answered and turned my head back to look out over the ocean. I didn’t make any move to get out.

Heero’s clothes rustled and the sand crunched under his feet as he walked forwards. He stopped next to me, and I swore I could feel the warmth of his skin against mine. There was at least a foot between us.

‘Then why are you here?’ he asked silently, as though afraid of disturbing something from its sleep.

‘To remember,’ I said, watching a wall of a wave start to break, and imagined Solo catching it and doing a perfect drop into the trough. He would have had a wide grin on his face, a grin that said he would defy death every time. Except once. I shivered as I imagined me right there beside him, falling, losing control.

‘Let’s go up,’ I said, and turned around. I didn’t want to ruin my best memories with Solo and continually get back to his death.

We walked onto the beach in silence. I hesitated for a moment before I put my board in the sand and sat down, not ready to leave just yet. I got my face full of excited dog as soon as I sat, and I chuckled softly as he tried to lick me on my mouth.

Heero smacked his tongue and Zero stopped his ministrations and lay down on top of my feet as Heero sat down beside me. I leaned forwards to scratch the dog behind his ears.

‘Why are you here, ‘Ro?’

He hesitated for a moment, scooting forward a bit to pet his dog on his head. His hand was close to mine. All I would need to do was to extend a finger, and we’d touch.

‘I was worried,’ he answered after a while and I stared at him. He was looking intently at his dog, seeming almost afraid to meet my eyes. If what he had said hadn’t sounded so sincere, I would have laughed and thought he was joking.

‘Why?’ I asked when it seemed as though he wasn’t going to say anything more.

‘Last time it was high seas during night, you almost died,’ he said and I shook my head.

I chuckled. ‘I’m only that stupid once,’ I said. It was an attempt to lighten the mood, but he didn’t even smile.

‘I thought so too, but then Zee woke me up, and I wasn’t so sure,’ he said, turning his head slightly to meet my eyes. The small smirk he had on his lips looked sexy and not at all as superior as it had looked the previous times that I’d seen it.

‘He’s a bit of a traitor.’

‘No kidding. He’s been leaving me for some surfer every night,’ he said with humor in his voice.

‘The cad. Did you figure out who it was?’ I said with a grin and Heero finally laughed softly. The sound was so beautiful I almost stopped breathing. I didn’t want to miss a single instant of it.

‘I did,’ he said, looking at me intently, and he moved his hand from Zero’s head to on top of my hand. I did stop breathing then.

‘Heero?’ I asked, voice slightly pitched, and he smirked.

‘I don’t particularly care for pro surfers…’ he said and I felt my heart drop and I tried to pull my hand away, but he held on to it. Why the hell was he teasing me like this?

‘Look, Heero, I have to get to work,’ I said and his eyes darkened.

He let go of my hand as though he’d been burnt, and flew to his feet.

‘Come on, Zee,’ he said. Zero got up and shook the sand off of himself before rushing after his owner, who had already managed to get quite far.

‘Asshole,’ I muttered, still sitting on the beach, wondering what his game was. Sometimes, it seemed as though he might be nice, as though he might actually like me, or at least be attracted to me. And then he had to go and open his mouth and say something that was only meant to rile me up. Teasing me was what he was doing, and I kept falling for it, every time.

Asshole.

The sun started to creep up over the horizon and I took a deep breath before I got up. I really did have to get to work, so I passed by the shed to drop off my board on the way. It was no use dwelling over the may or may not be in regards to my relationship with Heero. I’d take it better if he just told me he had absolutely no interest in me whatsoever and get it over with.

‘You still haven’t gotten a car, kid?’ Howard called from his balcony, and I looked up at him, shielding my eyes from the low sun.

‘With whose money, old man?’ I asked, grinning, as I unlocked the front door of the shop. ‘Besides, I like running!’

‘Frugal youth, never seen that before,’ I heard Howard mutter in amusement as I went inside of the shop.

There was never much traffic in the shop on Saturday mornings, or at least there hadn’t been in the time I’d been working it. I usually did some restocking of the shelves. It was grunt-work, and gave me way too much time to think about things. About how I was going to get enough money to first enter Gundams, and on top of that, the Rift Wars. About how I’d managed to let my big mouth get me into trouble once more. And about Heero.

‘Kid,’ Howard called from the counter and I went up to him. I hadn’t heard any bell, so no customers had entered. ‘I got a shipment from Elto yesterday.’

‘Yeah?’ I asked hesitantly, wondering who would send me anything from Elto. Who at Elto even knew where I was?

‘In a box at the back. Go check it out,’ he said and I shook my head.

‘It can wait till I get off.’

‘Maybe it can, but I’m curious,’ he said with a grin and I rolled my eyes, but went into the back and saw the box sit on top of Howard’s desk.

It was indeed addressed to me, at the shop, and I felt some trepidation as I opened it. There was a note on top and I lifted it to reveal letters underneath. Hundreds of letters. My eyebrows shot up and I looked at the note.

_From your fans._

_They’re expecting you._

_G._

I shook my head in disbelief. Somehow G had figured out where I was, and gone ahead to send me mail from the last months. There had never been a lot of that in the past. At the most, I might have gotten one or two letters a month from some young Elto surfer.

This was a whole lot more than one or two letters a month, and I doubted the contents were going to be altogether positive.

‘You left your pen pal behind?’ I heard behind me, and I snorted in amusement.

‘Nothing like it,’ I said. ‘G is an old geezer who doesn’t know how to mind his own business.’

‘He is, huh?’

‘Always has been one for manipulating me into things,’ I said. He’d been my coach and manager until I’d left. He was annoying and bossy in every way that a coach should be. But he’d pushed too far, before I was ready to go on after Solo, and I’d taken the board and ran away.

‘This is manipulative?’

I shrugged. ‘It’s mail from local kids in Elto, I guess.’

Howard peeked into the box, and I turned away from it, heading back to the front of the shop.

‘What’s this?’ he asked and I looked over my shoulder just as I heard the bell from the store. He held up an issue of Surf’d, the surfer magazine from Elto and I rolled my eyes.

‘I’m going up front, you can do whatever you want with the mag’,’ I said and went out to see Quatre, Wufei, the tall blonde I’d seen my first day and a pretty girl that I’d only seen from afar while she was surfing.

‘Duo! Just the man I wanted to meet,’ Quatre said as I came through the door and I smiled at him in greeting.

‘Hey, Q’, what’s up?’

‘We’re having a barbecue tonight after hitting the waves,’ he said, eyes shining happily. ‘Join us.’

I hesitated, just for a moment, but it was a moment too much for Quatre, and his face fell.

‘What’s happened now?’ he asked in exasperation.

‘No, nothing,’ I answered and shook my head.

‘Heero came in this morning with his knickers in a twist,’ Wufei said in a composed voice, picking chips from the shelves. ‘Maybe it’s got something to do with that.’

‘Oh, come _on_ ,’ Quatre said. ‘You two were fine yesterday. How do you even have time to argue before sunrise?’

‘Ask Heero,’ I said with a quirked smile, a bit ashamed.

‘I will! But you still have to come to the barbecue, I’m not taking no for an answer,’ he said sternly. ‘It’ll be big, you won’t have to talk to Heero unless you want to.’

‘Yeah, okay,’ I said, amused. Surely I could handle meeting Heero at a barbecue. I wasn’t a little kid that had to run away from my problems. Maybe it would be the perfect time to actually confront him about his general prickliness. Or at least ask him to stop teasing me.

‘Great!’ he said, smacking the counter once with his hand before he went off to the rest and they began discussing which meat would be the best for barbecuing that evening.

It took them nearly an hour to pick out everything they would need for the evening, and I worried for a bit what I was going to buy. But then I realized it was a moot point anyways. I’d just catch some fish before going up to join them.

‘Quatre, give the kid a ride back to the beach,’ Howard said as I was packing up the last of their things. I rolled my eyes at him, not fully getting why he didn’t want me to run between the store and the shed. It was good training.

‘Sure, we’ve got room in the back,’ he answered off-handedly and raised an eyebrow when Howard set down the box of letters on the counter, magazine on top.

‘Here, kid,’ Howard said and held out an envelope. ‘For the last weeks.’ I took it and put it in my backpack. Finally, I had some money again.

‘Thanks, Howie. See you Monday,’ I said, grabbed the box, and followed the group outside.

In the back apparently meant on the cargo area of the pickup truck, together with Quatre, Wufei and the girl whose name was Sally.

Wufei had immediately snagged the magazine that was on top and looked at it.

‘Hey, this isn’t published yet,’ he said, and flipped it open.

‘What?’ Sally said and leaned in towards Wufei to see for herself if he was telling the truth. A blush spread on his cheeks and his lips went taut.

‘What are you doing?’ he asked, frowning.

‘Checking if you’re lying.’

‘I’m not. See, issue number 12, it’s for December. It’s not due out for another week.’

‘Why would you have an unpublished edition of Surf’d?’ Sally asked me, still leaning slightly against Wufei who looked decidedly uncomfortable. I just couldn’t figure out if he was uncomfortable because he liked it or not.

‘There’s probably an article about me in it. They send out previews in such case,’ I answered, trying to sound blasé about it, but I was really quite worried. What could they have to write about me after I’d been gone for so long?

‘Oh, let’s see,’ Sally said and snatched the magazine from Wufei’s hands.

‘Hey!’ Wufei said, but didn’t make too much of an effort in retrieving it. Instead, he leaned slightly against the girl as she leafed through the pages.

‘Here!’ she said excitedly. ‘Duo, ‘Reaper’, Maxwell on hiatus after tragic accident…’ she tapered off, looking up at me with a concerned look. Without reading any further she handed the magazine to me, but I shook my head.

While I was truly grateful that she offered, I didn’t want it. Didn’t want to read whatever new image they had put upon me after Solo’s death. Didn’t want to read how I’d killed my best friend. Didn’t want to see them write that the Reaper had taken another victim. Human this time.

‘Keep it, or throw it away. There are probably a few other articles in there that can interest you,’ I said and knocked on the window to get tall and blond, officially known as Zechs, to stop the car. I jumped off of the truck before it had come to a complete standstill.

‘Duo,’ Quatre said and leaned over the side with the box of letters in his hand, that I accepted. ‘We’ll go to Coral today, the waves are small. I’ll bring a longboard for you.’

‘I…’ I started, but Zechs drove off before I’d gotten a word of refusal out, making me sigh in resignation. I guess I’d have to go; I hated disappointing Quatre.

I dropped the letters through the small window of the shed and climbed in after them. I got myself a few slices of bread before climbing back out. While Quatre had promised to bring me a longboard, I still grabbed my own board in case the waves would increase.

Coral was crowded, but the waves were small enough that it didn’t matter much. Even if two people caught the same wave, it wouldn’t be too devastating since there would be no possibility to gain that much speed. Besides, despite the name of Coral, it’s a beach break, and no coral reefs are present until the Surf.

‘You came!’ Quatre called and I turned back to see him jogging towards me with two longboards under his arm.

‘You didn’t give me much of a choice,’ I answered in amusement.

‘Of course not, how else was I going to get you to come,’ he said smugly. ‘Put your board in the pickup truck, it’s just up there,’ he said, pointing towards the parking lot and I ran off to do as he said.

‘You’re going to surf the big waves?’ I heard an ironic voice behind me as I was hitching my board over the side into the cargo area of the pickup. It was Mueller, and I decided not to dignify him with a response, simply walking away to go down to the beach again. He grabbed a hold of my arm and I turned around to face him.

‘Hey! You’ll be sorry if you compete in the Rift Wars!’

‘Alex is the one who challenged me,’ I said calmly. ‘You saying he wants to pull out?’ I wouldn’t mind that too much actually.

‘Hell no!’ he said and pushed against my shoulder, making me take a step backwards.

‘You’re afraid he’ll lose then?’ I asked, eyebrow raised.

‘He’d beat you even if he had his hands tied behind his back.’

‘Great,’ I said sarcastically. ‘I guess we’ll se at the Wars, right?’ I said and turned around and left.

‘You’ll be sorry!’ he called after me and I raised my hand, waving in a dismissive gesture.

Sally and Wufei were standing a little bit off, obviously having watched the encounter, and joined me as I walked towards Quatre.

‘What’s that about?’ Sally asked with a glance back towards Mueller.

‘I’ve apparently managed to make some enemies here,’ I said with a grin and grabbed the longboard that Quatre was holding out to me. ‘Let’s go.’

We were about halfway to the lineup when I felt something push my board down from behind, and I thought _shark_ as I turned around quickly.

It was nothing of the sort, and I began to laugh in relief as Zero was trying his best to climb onto the board.

‘Here, boy,’ I said and tapped the water next to me. He pushed his paw off the board and swam around, and I helped him up in front of me.

‘Duo, I don’t think Heero’s ever surfed with him,’ Quatre said, cautioning me and I grinned.

‘He’ll be fine,’ I answered, since I had already surfed with him once. If only Heero could avoid whistling while the dog was on the board, we’d both be fine. ‘He’s even got a life vest, so he’s all set.’

Quatre didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t say anything else either so I lay down to continue paddling. Zero sat with his tongue lolling out, looking completely relaxed on the board. It was hard to believe no one had surfed with him previously.

When the next wave came, I paddled for it, telling Zero to lie down. I didn’t miss the incredulous look that both Quatre and Wufei gave me as the dog obeyed. We caught the wave, and once I had it, Zero stood up on all fours, leaning along with me as we followed the long wave.

‘Good boy,’ I said silently, and he shook his head as the spray of the whitewater hit him.

The whistle came once the wave was done, and both Zero and I were sitting on the board again. The dog stood up and gave a wag of his tail before jumping into the water and swimming up to his owner. Heero stood by the shore in his red lifeguard trunks and the rescue tank in hand.

I watched as the dog ran in circles around Heero, then into the water and watching him, and then back again, pushing against Heero’s leg. Heero lifted his eyes from the dog and met mine. The intensity of his gaze, even at eighty feet apart, was breathtaking.

‘I’ll surf with him some more, if he wants to,’ I called and he narrowed his eyes. I was certain that he was going to refuse. Then Trowa came up to him with his board under his arm and said something to Heero that made him look back out at me, then the dog, and back to me again. He nodded.

‘Here, boy!’ I called for Zero and he immediately rushed into the water and swam back up to me, and I helped him back up onto the board.

Trowa paddled up next to me. ‘What have you done to that dog that makes him like you so much?’

‘I gave him treats that made him sick,’ I answered and he blinked before he laughed.

‘It’s not a very smart dog,’ he said, laughter still in his voice as he reached over to scratch the dog behind his ear. ‘But he’s a good judge of character.’

I frowned as he said that, wondering just what in the hell he meant. If he meant anything at all by it, of course.

‘Yeah? He needs to bite Mueller,’ I said casually and Trowa snorted loudly.

‘Oh, he’s been close,’ he said and I reached up to pet the dog on his head.

‘Good boy,’ I said to him, and started to paddle back to the lineup.

‘Yeah, but it’s better that he doesn’t bite,’ I heard Trowa behind me, and I did agree. There was no cause to give Mueller any reason to try and have the dog put down. I had a feeling he was the kind of person to use anything to gain an advantage.

Zero was the perfect dog to surf with. It was like he was born in the water, because he loved every second of it, just like me. It made me forget about the crowds, about money, and about Heero.

There was nothing that could beat the feeling of travelling over the water and feeling the spray on your legs, the tremble of the board under your feet and the surge of power of the water below.

It had a way of making you forget everything else.


	8. One Eighty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heated moments ahead

I never did get time to catch that fish. Quatre had been waiting for Zero and me to leave the water and had practically shoved me onto the back of the pickup together with what felt like half of the people from the beach. With everyone having at least one board, it was quite crowded.

Somehow, I had ended up sitting next to Heero, pressed flush against his side. He was tight as a spring, and I was sure he was still angry about that morning. Not that I was sure what he had to be angry about. I should have been the one that was upset about it.

Zero was lying on Heero’s other side, with his front paws and his head over Heero’s abdomen, eyes closed.

‘I think you exhausted the dog, Maxwell,’ Wufei said with a raised eyebrow. I felt Heero tense a little more next to me and I was amazed that was even possible. It made me hesitate and wonder what I could say that wouldn’t make Heero even angrier with me. It seemed like he was pretty touchy when it came to his dog.

‘He kept wanting to go out for more,’ I said, silently. It was true; every time I had started to get up from the water he had simply jumped in and swam away, making me follow him. It had kept going like that until Heero had whistled for his dog. At that point I had been a bit relieved. Even though the waves were small, it’s quite exhausting to surf for hours. It doesn’t matter how well trained you are.

‘He’s a lab, he loves water,’ Heero said just as I’d given up on him answering. He placed his hand on top of his dog’s head. Heero looked pleased, and I was mesmerized by the small smile on his lips. It curved upwards ever so slightly and he looked serene as he petted his dog.

‘He was great, you should take him on your board some day,’ I said. He turned narrowed eyes towards me and he had lost that peaceful smile. It made me regret havings said anything at all.

He shook his head. ‘Maybe.’

He didn’t sound convinced, and I frowned, wondering what could have happened to make him so reluctant to try something that his dog apparently loved.

Zechs stopped the car and everyone cleared out of the pickup truck. Heero was gone from my side as soon as he had room to move. I left at a more sedate pace, grabbed my board and placed it on the rack by the Safe house before I dropped my backpack off inside. I was sure that Quatre wouldn’t mind it. We gathered up all the food and headed down to the beach.

I shouldn’t have worried about not having gotten time to catch that fish. As soon as Quatre had noticed I had nothing to eat he had happily shared what they had bought previously; claiming that they had gotten more than they would be able to finish anyways. I figured it to be the truth since I’d seen exactly how much they’d gotten, so I accepted and vowed to pay him back later. It was the best dinner I’d had in months.

It didn’t take long before Zechs had offered me my first bottle of beer. With what felt like everyone watching I hadn’t wanted to reject. Actually, I hadn’t seen any harm in trying it and quickly found it to be rather tasty.

It was a great barbecue, and I felt included. It felt as though I was being accepted by the locals. That’s a huge deal in the surfing community and it’s something that doesn’t come easily. I could only surmise that I’d met the right people in Quatre, Trowa, Wufei and Heero. Even though Heero and I didn’t see eye to eye.

It seemed as though those four were legends around here, and it didn’t surprise me. It wasn’t only that they were great surfers. Over the weeks I’d observed them I’d noticed a kindness and willingness to share knowledge I’d never seen in Elto. These four never boasted about their skills to anyone. Instead, they readily agreed to show a trick or two and helped them nail it.

On Elto, everyone I knew pushed to be the best, and woe whoever helped anyone not in your own crew. I liked the tradition on Sanc better.

Quatre sat down next to me, making me stop my musings.

‘I thought you were underage,’ he said in amusement, inclining towards the bottle of beer in my hand. I noticed he held a soda in his hand.

‘Oh,’ I lamented. ‘You had soda as well.’

‘Yeah, up for grabs. Want one?’

‘Nah, I’m finishing this one,’ I said and held up my… what…? third bottle of beer?

‘All right. I’ll be back in a flash, Duo,’

‘Flash? That’s a superhero you know,’ I said.

He nodded and had a wide grin on his face. ‘I know.’ I didn’t understand his amusement.

He left me to sit alone so I got to my feet, intent on finding some company. I felt an odd sensation of vertigo for a moment after I stood and I paused to let it pass. I frowned, confused at what was going on but shook it off and headed closer to the water.

The surf was starting to pick up again and I felt that familiar pull, that feeling of wanting to be out there and catch a wave. While there was always the wish of catching the perfect wave, any wave would do, really. I just wanted the rush of it.

In retrospect, it was quite stupid of me. Going back to the Safe house to get water wasn’t stupid, but taking my board with me on the way back was. Going out into the water was outright ludicrous.

I knew the alcohol had affected me, and I knew how stupid it was to try and surf while under the influence. I wasn’t planning on surfing though. I merely wanted to sit out there for a moment. But I haven’t always been the smartest of guys, and when I felt a wave come my plans went out the window. I turned around and paddled with the wave.

I didn’t pop up, feeling that I would probably fall if I did. I held myself up with my arms and went with the flow as the wave started to barrel. The wave was quicker than I’d expected and I cursed when it shut me off. I lay down flat, pressing downwards on the board as the wave crashed down on top of me.

The whitewater pushed me around a bit, but I was never pushed under the surface and I laughed happily. It had been an amazing wave after all, and I turned to paddle out again.

‘Stop,’ someone called and I turned to see Heero on the beach.

‘It’s glorious!’ I shouted in answer. He didn’t look happy.

‘I’ll come out and get you,’ he said in a stern voice and I frowned.

‘So come,’ I called and I saw him open his mouth, and the rise and fall of his chest as he sighed.

‘Fine,’ he said, took off his shirt, and got into the water. It surprised me; I had not thought that he would.

He came up next to me and nimbly joined me on the surfboard. There was a moment when I thought it might actually be able to hold the both of us. Then it started to slide away from under me, and I squeezed my legs tighter around it. It wouldn’t have any of it however. The board flew out behind me, making me slide straight into Heero’s arms and then we were submerged in water.

I pushed my head above the surface and shook it to clear my eyes from my hair. Heero was doing the same in front of me. He looked a bit like a drenched dog. Though he didn’t look as happy as Zero did when he was drenched. I began to laugh loudly and pulled the board back to me, crossing my arms on it, letting it keep me afloat without needing to tread water.

Heero looked at me with a glare, but I saw the edges of his mouth twitch, and he also put his arms on the board.

‘Let’s go in,’ he said, amusement in his voice and I nodded in agreement this time. We swam towards the beach.

When I stumbled my way out of the water I was still grinning. Heero reached to steady me and helped me up a bit further before we sat down on the beach.

‘You’re an asshole, you know that?’ I asked.

‘You’re the first that’s openly called me one,’ he answered, amusement plain in his voice.

‘I tend to let my mouth run off,’ I said and turned to him, bending my left leg under me so I could get closer. ‘If you weren’t such an asshole, I think I might like you.’

‘Yeah?’ he asked, and leaned closer, making me swallow. I could see every line in his face, the way his wet hair clung to his forehead, the water drops tracing his perfect jawline before dripping down, and I groaned. It made him smirk

‘This is why you’re an asshole!’ I said and started to pull away. ‘You’re just teasing me!’ Teasing me through simply existing. I wondered if that was a good enough reason to take out a restraint order.

He grabbed a hold of my arm, making me stop all movement. He put his other hand behind my neck with which he pulled me towards him and our mouths met. I was stupefied for a moment, but then I buried my hands in his wet hair and met his kiss with an equal passion.

There should have been fireworks.

We pulled back for a breath, and I opened my eyes that I didn’t remember closing.

‘Damn,’ I muttered and Heero let out a breath, again wearing that smirk. It didn’t feel quite so superior or teasing anymore. It was sexy.

‘Yeah,’ he agreed and I chuckled.

On impulse, I pushed him onto his back and straddled him, leaning down for another kiss, which he happily met. His hands traced a line over my back, making me shiver and press closer to him. He chuckled throatily against my mouth and I felt him grow hard against my inner thigh. My heart was beating wildly against my chest.

‘Gods, Duo,’ Heero groaned and pressed his hips upwards. I couldn’t breath as my own hardness was caught between us. I buried my face against his shoulder and felt his hands stray towards the waistline of my trunks. He traced the edge with his fingers.

I drew a shaky breath and raised myself up above him again. My mouth was inches above his, but as I leaned down to claim yet another kiss he put his hand on my shoulder, pushing us over and putting him on top.

Then he inhaled sharply, cursed, and got up. I blinked as coldness came over me at the loss of his heat.

‘’Ro?’ I asked, confused. He had been just as excited as I had been. As a guy, it was quite difficult to hide. He stayed with his back turned against me and his head tilted downwards as his shoulders rose and fell with his heavy breathing.

I pulled myself together and sat up, curling my legs up in front of me and grabbing a hold of them. I let go when I realized how insecure and vulnerable it made me look.

‘This is why you’re an asshole,’ I muttered and stood up. I grabbed my surfboard from the sand and when I’d straightened I was grabbed from behind. The surprise made me drop my board right back down onto the sand. I took a deep breath to stop all the feelings that were trying to surge up to the surface. I was getting tired of this game.

‘I know,’ he said. ‘But you’re drunk, Duo. I’m not doing this with you when you’re drunk.’

I turned around in his embrace, staring at him with wide eyes. Was it a game? Or did he genuinely care?

‘I’m not drunk. I barely had anything to drink,’ I said, excusing myself, but when thinking about it, he was probably right.

‘Sure,’ he said and stroked his finger gently along the length of my arm, making me shiver. I had a hard time keeping myself from touching him in return.

‘So, when I’m sober…?’ I asked tentatively and he let out that husky laugh again. I licked my lips.

‘Yeah. If you’re still interested.’

I could only nod in affirmation and moved my hands to my braid, playing with it distractedly when I felt the sand in it.

‘You got sand in my hair,’ I told him and he laughed.

‘You got sand in mine first,’ he answered

He bent down to pick up my surfboard before settling his free arm around my back, leaning his hand against my hipbone. We headed towards the Safe house, but I disentangled myself from him by the beach showers.

‘I can’t sleep with sand in my hair,’ I said and watched him as I undid my braid. Slowly.

‘No, that would be… unwise,’ he said, watching as the tresses of my hair unraveled. I saw the telltale sign of his once again growing attraction, and it was my turn to smirk. This was quite fun.

‘Now who’s teasing?’ he asked in a deep voice.

I chuckled and turned the shower on. The water ran over my head, quickly clearing my hair of all sand. Heero stepped up behind me, and it felt as though I molded against his body. He used one hand to push my hair away from my neck and kissed it even as the cold water from the shower was rushing over both of us. I moaned at the feeling and bit my lip as I felt his lips curl against my neck.

‘You’re damn hot, Duo,’ he said and I shivered at the mixture of his hot breath, the cold water, and the heating from my groin.

‘Funny, I feel quite cold,’ I said, trying to seem ignorant. I’m pretty sure the hitch in my voice as he nibbled on my ear made me fail.

‘Let’s get going then,’ he said. He grabbed my board, took me by my hand and led me to the Safe house. Once inside, he handed me a towel that I gratefully accepted and wiped myself off.

Heero watched me unabashedly and I felt oddly vulnerable with my hair spread around me, and a towel around my shoulders. Where I had previously felt so confident, it suddenly felt as though I was merely floundering, and I took a hesitant step towards him. What was I supposed to do now?

‘Let’s go to sleep,’ he said, with a gentle smile, and I blinked as he led me to his room.

‘Sleep?’ I asked dumbly and sat down on his bed.

‘Yeah, we’ll talk more tomorrow. Get out of your wet trunks though, I don’t want a wet –’ He shook his head. ‘Just take them off.’

I did as he said and kind of regretted I’d had to focus so much on that so I had missed when Heero had done the same. He’d already changed into new underwear when I’d looked up.

‘Here,’ he said and held out a pair of briefs.

‘I have my own in my backpack,’ I muttered, but accepted them and shimmied into them under the towel. I shouldn’t have been feeling so embarrassed. For crying out loud, I had been completely ready to have sex with the man only minutes ago.

‘Hey, ‘Ro,’ I said as I lay down on the bed.

‘Yeah?’ he asked as he crawled in behind me. He snaked his arm over my waist, pressing me close to him. The warmth from his body was a stark contrast against the coolness of my own skin and I shivered. He pulled up the sheet above us before he brought his arm back.

‘I don’t normally just… jump into bed with anyone.’ Actually, this was a first.

‘Me neither,’ he said and placed a kiss between my shoulder blades.

‘I’ve… actually…’ I started. I’d wanted to say I’d never done it before, but I didn’t think he’d be interested. I wanted to bury my head in the pillow when Heero pushed against my shoulder. He made me turn onto my back and I was met with a vision of his face. He hovered above me, eyebrows furrowed, his blue eyes looking warm in the soft glow of the sunset whose light trickled into the room.

‘What?’ he asked.

‘You’re like the ocean, ‘Ro. You’re pulling me in, but I’m afraid I’ll drown,’ I said, the words leaving me without any thought and he moved his right hand to touch my chin gently.

‘I’ll catch you,’ he said and placed a soft kiss on the edge of my mouth. ‘Sleep. We’ll talk more in the morning.’

I was already drowning.


	9. Submerged

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, by my time I'm 1.5 hours too late for this being a Wednesday update. Sorry about that, life got in the way :)

When I woke up, it was to Heero gently tracing a pattern with his finger over my lower abdomen. He didn’t follow the line of my muscle. His finger traced the line of a long scar, travelling from my abdomen, right by my hipbone and over the side. It felt odd to have him touch it since I could barely feel it. There was a small tickling sensation and that was it.

The scar stood out like a sore thumb. Usually, I hid it with my trunks but apparently the briefs had slid down somewhat during the night, revealing the scar to Heero.

I caught his hand in mine and squeezed.

‘What happened?’ he asked and I sighed. I’d known the question would come.

‘Reef,’ I answered, and he looked at me with a raised eyebrow, but he let it go and kissed my shoulder.

I turned around to face him, struck with how gentle his face looked. During the weeks I’d known him, he’d only ever seemed cold. Possibly with the exception of how he’d been against his dog. I guessed I’d never really known him at all.

‘Why?’ I asked, and he locked his eyes with mine.

‘Why what?’

‘Why were you so… distant?’ I asked, still holding onto his hand with mine, liking the feel of it.

He sighed, and gave me a tight smile.

‘You weren’t exactly easy to get close to. Then you poisoned my dog.’

‘I –’ he moved both our hands and put a finger on my lips.

‘You did, though I know you didn’t mean to. I shouldn’t have been so angry with you, but I think I was jealous.’

‘Jealous?’ I echoed.

‘Zee had never ran off before, and now he left every night. I thought he’d found some female that he was running off to, so I followed him to make sure there wouldn’t be any puppies,’ he said and I chuckled. That would have made more sense than the dog running off to watch a surfer. It would have presented a whole other set of problems however.

‘You had me mesmerized the very first night,’ Heero said.

‘You… watched me ever since Zee started coming?’ That was long before we’d actually met and spoken.

‘Yeah,’ he murmured and moved his hand from mine. He sifted through my hair with his fingers. I hadn’t braided it again after the shower. ‘I couldn’t even see what you looked like, with only the moonlight shining you up, but it was enough.’

My cheeks grew warm and he smirked.

‘I didn’t see the first time you gave him that treat, but I figured it out when he was vomiting on the floor. He’s never taken anything from anyone but me and –’ he interrupted himself as his lips tightened and he looked away for a moment. ‘So I was jealous.’

‘Wow,’ I said and placed my own hand on his bare chest and pushed him onto his back. I leaned onto my elbow to hover above him, our lips only inches apart. ‘You watched me, for so long, and I had no idea.’

I kissed him and he responded willingly. Other parts of his body were responding as well and I kissed his chin that had a small stubble on it. I moved down, kissing his throat, and then the collarbone. He groaned slightly and I traced the collarbone with my finger, and followed the line down the middle of his chest. I continued through the middle of his abs, stopping just short of his briefs.

Was I doing this? Did I want this? Did he?

He grabbed my hand and rolled us over, placing himself on top of me and I stopped thinking. He pushed his knees against my legs, making me divide them slightly to give room for him. He pressed flush against my body and we captured each other’s lips in a passionate kiss.

‘Heero!’ was called from outside and it was the only warning we got before the door flung open.

I turned my head away, wishing the mattress could swallow me whole.

‘Never mind,’ Trowa said with laughter in his voice. ‘Carry on.’

‘Get out,’ Heero said in a low, growling voice, reminding me a little bit of an animal.

‘On it,’ Trowa said and I heard the door close. Trowa’s loud laughter made me flinch and squirm a bit under Heero to get out.

‘Shit,’ Heero said and got off me, and sat down on the edge of the bed.

‘I couldn’t agree more,’ I said, finally seeing the humor in it, and began to laugh. I turned onto my side and leaned on my elbow.

‘I’m sorry. The downside of having housemates is quickly becoming more apparent,’ he said in an amused tone. I shook my head and started to trace circles on his back. I couldn’t get enough of touching him. The indication that he hadn’t brought anyone back to the Safe house previously wasn’t lost on me.

‘It’s fine,’ I said and sat up next to him. ‘You’ve got work today?’

‘Shit!’ Heero said and flew up from the bed, making me laugh as I figured out that he did indeed have work today. ‘It’s Oz Pro-Am today, I’m on the jet-ski.’

‘Oh, right. Wufei’s competing, right?’

‘Yeah. What time is it?’ he asked as he jumped the trunks he’d discarded on the floor the previous night. Actually…

I smiled.

‘Just after six, and those are mine,’ I said when he couldn’t quite manage to close the trunks around his waist.

‘Shit,’ he growled and pulled them off as I laughed, handing them to me before he found his own.

The trunks were still damp from the shower but I changed into them and bundled Heero’s underwear up. I’d wash them my next laundry day.

‘When does it start?’ I asked and followed him out of his room.

‘Eight, but since I’m helping out, I have to be there at seven for the briefing,’ he answered.

We went into the kitchen where Trowa, Wufei and Quatre were already standing, picking together their breakfast. All of them looked up at us with knowing smiles, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit smug since I knew they were thinking the wrong thing. We hadn’t done anything, after all.

Still, I blushed, and Heero didn’t exactly help when he took a hold of my hand and squeezed before letting go.

‘Morning, you two,’ Quatre said in his usual voice and with his usual sweet smile. Not commenting on anything.

‘Morning,’ I said, hoping that they wouldn’t say anything about it. I had started to like these guys and was fearful of things becoming weird between us. What if Heero and I didn’t work out? What if Heero and I didn’t even start to work out? Was there a Heero and I or was I simply jumping to conclusions from our little make-out session that morning?

‘Want some juice, Duo?’ Heero asked as he was pouring up a glass of orange juice for himself.

‘Please,’ I said.

‘I bet he would…’ Wufei said with a surprisingly straight face as he looked down on his plate of fruits, adding a slice of apple to it.

‘That’s tacky, ‘Fei,’ I said in forced amusement. He looked up at me with a smile and I knew he was simply trying to include me in their regular banter.

I lost it and laughed loudly. Honestly, I didn’t think that Wufei would have been the one to say anything. Trowa, sure, but I hadn’t penned Wufei as the type.

It stopped being awkward then, and we had breakfast together out on the deck before we took the pickup truck to Coral where the competition would be held.

The waves were pushing on seven to eight feet, not exactly Wufei’s preferred height, and I could tell he was getting antsy as he walked back and forth in front of me. Heero was on the jet-skis and Trowa and Quatre were hidden away at the Legends tent, showing off some boards. We’d even left Zero back at the Safe house, which meant I was alone with Wufei as he went through his jitters.

‘Chill, ‘Fei,’ I said as he took an imaginary wave on the beach for the umpteenth time. ‘You can’t force it, anyways. Trust your skill.’

‘Easy for you to say, you’re the Pro,’ he said under his breath and I laughed, but then realized something that I’d apparently forgotten during the last few weeks. I was still a registered Pro.

‘Hey, ‘Fei. Pros can enter this one, right?’

‘Yes, thus the Pro in the name,’ Wufei answered sarcastically and I jumped to my feet.

‘Let’s go and register,’ I said and he raised his eyebrows, but followed me to the table with the administrators without a word.

‘What’s the price money for the Pros?’ I asked and the administrator lifted some papers to check.

‘Five thousand dollars in the pot with eleven entrants,’ he answered without glancing at me.

‘And registration fee?’ I asked

‘A hundred, but registration’s closed’ he said, still not lifting his head.

‘You’ve got eleven, you need one more. Check with the man in charge,’ I said and he raised his eyebrow and finally looked up. There was no sign of recognition, but at least he got up, presumably to check with his boss.

‘What are you doing, Duo?’ Wufei hissed besides me.

I grinned. ‘Entering the contest.’

‘I notice, but why?’

‘I need the money to enter Gundams,’ I answered with a shrug.

The admin came back and saw down to rifle through his papers. Again, he didn’t spare me a single glance and I was about to ask what the organizer had said when he held out some papers.

‘You’re in. Sign these,’ he said. It was the standard waivers to dissolve the organizers of responsibility in case of injury and I signed them quickly and handed them back to him together with the money.

‘The Pro rounds should start around twelve, you’ll be in the fourth heat,’ he said, handing me a receipt and I thanked him and left.

‘If you lose, you’re not getting a dime though,’ Wufei said as he started waxing his board.

I shrugged. ‘As long as I get to the quarters, I’ll get the registration fee back, so I just have to be in the top two in the first heat.’

‘You don’t even know who’s competing,’ Wufei said.

‘There is that, of course,’ I said with a chuckle. ‘But it doesn’t really matter. If I lose, I lose.’

‘Yeah,’ he said and shot me an odd look that I couldn’t place. It looked like he was trying to decide what to say. ‘Duo, don’t hurt Heero, all right?’

‘Hurt him?’ I asked, genuinely surprised. ‘How would I go about doing that?’

‘You’re a Pro,’ he answered as though it explained everything. To him, maybe it did.

‘So? What, you think I’ll leave when Gundams is up?’

‘Won’t you?’ he asked, and I realized I hadn’t really thought about it, making me hesitate in supplying him with an answer.

He snorted. ‘Thought so.’

‘No, I won’t just leave. I don’t know exactly what I’ll do. But Wufei, despite what you guys think; we didn’t do anything last night. And even if we had, I’m not sure why our relationship is of any concern of yours.’

‘I’ve known Heero since we were kids. He’s been through a lot, and I’ve had to help pick up the pieces. I don’t very much feel like doing that when you leave,’ he said and got to his feet, board under his arm, and left me sitting.

I stared after him a long while after I’d lost sight of him. Well, damn, wasn’t that just a regular punch to my gut? Heero hadn’t been a part of the plan when I’d run off to Sanc. But I wanted to fit him into my future.

When Solo and I had been Pro, we did all our travels together. We never had a place where we belonged. We lived in Solo’s run-down apartment during the off-season, but it was never a place we belonged. It was a bit presumptuous to think I had a place to belong even now. If I dared to dream there was more between Heero and me than sexual attraction. If I dared to dream, I wanted to stick around.

I wasn’t sure I dared to dream. I wasn’t sure I had the right to.

Wufei was in the first heat of the day, and I pulled myself out of my own head long enough to cheer for him. The waves were nice, but he lost most of them. He got closed out of the small barrels, or he fell as he dove too deep for a small wave. He caught one great wave that he managed to keep, managing to climb just over 5 points in the heat, but it was pure luck that he advanced into the second round.

He knew it as well, the angry look on his face as he came out of the water told me that. He walked with heavy steps and his eyes fixed on the sand. I was almost surprised I couldn’t see smoke billowing out of his ears.

‘Hey,’ I said as he walked passed me, and he flinched visibly, sighed, and dropped down next to me. Somehow, he’d gone from anger to regret in a heartbeat.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said and I shook my head.

‘You’re right. I don’t know what I’ll do. But I don’t know exactly what my relationship with Heero is either.’

‘So maybe you should talk to him?’ Wufei said with a tilted smile.

‘Great idea, genius,’ I said in amusement. ‘I hadn’t thought of that one.’ The rush that morning hadn’t left me with much time to talk. Even if we’d had more time, I doubted it would have been spent talking.

‘Yeah, sorry,’ he said, and looked out over the water.

‘Hey, ‘Fei,’ I said carefully, not wishing to upset him. ‘You’re dipping too much for the small waves, you’re submerging your board.’

‘I know,’ he answered. ‘Ever since I started going more for the big waves, I’ve had trouble. I think the waves will go higher than they do.’

‘You could try going for another board for a bit,’ I said as nonchalantly as I could, not sure how he was going to take my suggestion.

‘You’ve been talking to Quatre?’

‘No,’ I answered with a laugh and he smiled.

‘Maybe I’ll try,’ he said and we continued to watch the competition in relative silence, apart from commenting on some moves being made in the water, until it was time for his next heat.

He tried really hard to get his nose up, but it was messing with his flow. It made me regret having said anything at all. It’s impossible to change your style in minutes, and I should have kept silent until the end of the competition.

His heat scores were too low to advance further and he looked utterly devastated as he sat down next to me again.

‘There’s still two qualifiers, right?’ I asked and he nodded.

‘Yeah, but I’m not feeling quite as confident anymore.’

‘Each wave is different though.’

‘I can’t count on there being big waves during the next competition though,’ he answered and he was right.

‘You need to get someone to train with you,’ I said on sudden thought and he glanced at me out of the corner of his eyes.

‘Someone like you?’

‘I was thinking of Quatre,’ I said and Wufei chuckled softly.

‘He’s good, but I doubt he’d agree.’

‘So, maybe you should talk to him?’ I said, mirroring his own words from earlier and he let out a small noise of amusement.

‘Touché, genius,’ he said and I grinned.

‘Reaper?’ someone said in a surprised voice behind me. It was definitely a voice I recognized and I grinned even wider.

‘Hi Trant,’ I said, turning around to see the guy behind me, and I got to my feet.

‘Hey, kiddo,’ he said and we gave each other a quick hug with a pat on the back. ‘I was a bit surprised to see your name on the boards. I thought someone was trying to mess with me.’

‘Nope, me in the flesh,’ I said. ‘It’s good to see you, buddy.’

‘You too. How you holding up since… you know.’ Since Solo.

‘First competition today,’ I said, and he smiled widely.

‘I’ve got a chance today then? With you being out of practice and all.’

‘Don’t count on it,’ I said, and we both laughed.

‘Good luck, Reaper, I have to head out. We’ll catch up more later,’ he said.

‘Anytime’s good,’ I answered and we gave each other another quick hug before he headed off.

‘Someone you know?’ Wufei asked with a glance behind him.

‘Oh, shit, I should’ve introduced you,’ I said, realizing I’d been rude. ‘He’s an old pal. Solo and I used to hang out with him when we were at the same competitions.’

Wufei silently placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed slightly, making me look at him in surprise.

‘You looked us up?’ I asked. It definitely wasn’t the first time he’d heard about Solo.

‘The article in Surf’d had quite a lot to say about your accident. I didn’t read it, but Sally did and she was very… upset about it.’

‘Ah,’ I breathed, not really surprised at all. I’d actually rather expected it, and assumed that they’d had a lot to say about our crash. She would be upset, who’d want to be friends with a killer after all? Never mind that Wufei had obviously heard about it and was still talking to me. ‘It’s fine –‘

‘It’s never really fine, losing your friend,’ he said in a tight voice, full of understanding. There was no blame whatsoever and I regretted not having read the article. What did he know?

‘Thanks, ‘Fei,’ I said and he nodded. ‘Wanna go into the waves for a bit?’

‘Yeah, let’s go,’ he answered and we went a bit further away from the competition before paddling out into the water to catch a few waves before the Pro division started.

‘All right, I’m going to check in. See ya in thirty,’ I said and headed off towards the check-in tent.

‘Good luck,’ Wufei called and I raised my arm in a wave. It was bad luck to say thanks, so I didn’t. I don’t put much weight to superstition, really, but I didn’t want to tempt fate. Just in case. Always just in case.

I took the blue shirt that was given to me by the admin so we could be quickly distinguished in the water and put it on.

‘Maxwell, nice to see you back,’ was said behind me. I turned and grinned as I saw who it was. The day was turning out to be a reunion of my old surfer buddies.

‘Hey, Broden. Thanks,’ I said and we knocked our fists together in greeting.

‘You all healed?’ he asked and put his own yellow shirt on.

‘Yeah,’ I answered with a chuckled. ‘They stitched me up just fine.’

He smiled widely. ‘Good luck out there, bro’.’

‘You too,’ I answered.

The horn sounded and we gave each other a grin before rushing into the water and paddling out with the third person of our heat.

There was no shortage of waves for anyone, which fit me perfectly. It meant no one tried to drop in on anyone to utilize priority. Pretty soon I’d caught at least five waves where I should have gotten decent points. None had been great, but the waves were short, and there wasn’t a lot of room for showing off. They weren’t barreling either so it was all down to the tricks.

The points I got were high enough to get me into the quarterfinals. At least I’d get my entrance fee back, so now I hadn’t lost anything on joining. I’d probably earned five dollars.

The next heat started an hour later and I was really getting into it again. I still kept keeping a close eye on my competition. I didn’t care if I had priority or not, I would not go for a wave that I saw someone else aiming for. It was still fine during that heat. Potential waves were still coming in frequently, and while I didn’t get the best ones when I held back the way I did, I was fairly confident that my tricks would get me through the round.

The opposition was tough, but I scraped through to the next round by half a point.

The next heat was the semis where I’d been matched up against Broden. We gave each other a fist bump as the horn sounded and ran into the water, paddling out to the takeoff zone. The waves had become fewer, but most were taller and longer than they had been earlier. The only issue was how to manage to catch one of the good ones before the end of the heat.

Broden grabbed the first wave that came our way, but I knew it wouldn’t amount to much. It was too shallow, and Broden only got a small cutback in before losing the wave.

I waited, and was still sitting on my board when Broden came back up to the lineup on the inside. There was a nice wave coming in, and Broden looked over his shoulder at me to see if I was going to paddle for it. I gave him a nod to go ahead and he charged. It was a nice wave, but not as nice as the one that I knew was coming.

It took a minute, but then it came, pulling me in.

I popped up and rode the top of the wave before dropping down into a cutback to go back into the whitewater. Back again, onto the wave. I picked up speed and went into a bottom turn from which I pushed up over the breaking lip of the wave. I did a three sixty in the air and landed neatly in the whitewater. I grinned. That had felt good! The cheers from the crowd were carried across the water and the elated feeling I got as I heard them let me know that I had missed this. I had missed competing.

I paddled back to the lineup and waited again, watching as Broden took a couple more waves. Heero was on his jet-ski and had to fight the urge to wave to him, just in case he’d think I wanted him to pick me up. Then I turned back to look over the water and there was a wall coming towards me.

I smiled and paddled hard. This would be a tube; I knew it! The wave took a hold of the board and I popped up. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Broden do the same, and he dropped into my path. There was nothing I could do but to turn away, downwards, and I was smacked in my head by the falling lip. It pressed me under the water and held me down for a split second.

I pushed myself upwards and, as I cleared the surface, I was hit by something over the side of my head. It made me dive under again, hoping it hadn’t been Broden. But it couldn’t have been, he’d been in front of me and I pushed my way up again.

The sun glared me right in the eyes when I surfaced and a splitting pain in my head made itself known. My board was right next to me. I grabbed onto it and hung there for a moment as I closed my eyes. It felt as though I was going to throw up if I moved too much so I lifted a hand into the air so the jet-ski would come pick me up. Then I dropped my aching head on my arms, shielding my eyes from the light.

The jet-ski came and I didn’t even check who was on it as I held my arm out. I was grabbed and used the momentum to get the board and me onto the pad and grabbed a handhold with my free hand. When the driver let go of my hand I immediately pressed it against my head, hoping my skull wasn’t trying to crawl out through my eye sockets. It felt like it wanted to.

‘In,’ I said, but I didn’t think he heard me. It didn’t matter, there was no way I was going to grab another wave and I think it showed.

He rode the jet-ski all the way up onto the beach. I stumbled to my feet and was soon grabbed under the arm.

‘Easy, Duo.’ It was Heero, and I leaned against him. ‘Just sit down, they’ll get you a gurney.’

‘No,’ I whispered, as to not make the pain any worse. ‘I’ll walk.’

He hesitated, and I moved my foot in the direction where the medical tent was located. It got him moving as well, steadying me.

Someone came in on my other side as well, but I’d already closed my eyes again so I didn’t care to check whom it was. I was grateful for the support. It wouldn’t do much for my reputation if I was to fall flat on my face in the sand.

‘There’s a bed right behind you, Duo,’ Heero said in a low tone and I removed my hand from my head to feel for the edge behind me. I grabbed it and sat down slowly, weary of moving too quickly. Heero let me go and I had a moment of loss until he placed his hand on my shoulder.

I’d had concussions before, and I had no doubt that I’d gotten one this time as well. Everything felt a bit… tilted.

‘I’m Dr. Brown,’ someone said in front of me and I heard the scratch of something against the sand, making me flinch. ‘Open your eyes, Mr. Maxwell.’

‘Do I have to?’ I asked but opened my eyes. White spots were playing in my vision. When I’d had my eyes closed the spots had been relatively steady. The pain behind my temple grew as the spots increased in intensity and the doctor shone a bright light into my eyes. It made me turn my head away and squint my eyes closed.

‘Any pain in your neck?’ the doctor asked and pressed against the back and sides of my neck.

‘Nope, just the head,’ I answered slowly, looking at him through my nearly closed eyes. He nodded as he jotted something down on a paper then proceeded to check reflexes and balance. He leaned over to his desk and grabbed a bottle of something as well as some swabs. He covered the swab with the liquid and brought it up against the side of my head.

It stung.

‘You have a concussion. I’ll patch up your wound, then I’ll send you off to the hospital for monitoring.’

‘I’d rather not go to the hospital,’ I said and the doctor prodded at my forehead.

‘Does this hurt?’ he asked and I focused on what he was doing. I couldn’t feel anything beyond the pain behind my eyes.

‘No,’ I answered and he nodded.

‘As long as you’ve got someone to stay with, I won’t send you to the hospital. If your headache gets worse, you need to go.’

It made me hesitate, and realize that I wouldn’t even be able to get into the shed for some sleep when I was feeling like this.

‘He does, he’ll stay with me,’ Heero said, tightening his hand slightly on my shoulder and I shifted my eyes to look at him. Unfortunately, all I could really see without moving my head was his hand and a small part of his abdomen. Maybe not unfortunate at all, he’s got very nice muscles, even though they were tilted a bit.

‘What he said,’ I said and smiled. It hadn’t even occurred to me that Heero would offer, even though I’d spent the previous night in his bed.

‘All right,’ the doctor said and moved his hands away from my head. ‘You can go home and grab some sleep. Heero, wake him up a few times, and check his pupils for dilation. Some regurgitation is to be expected, but not repeatedly. Take him to a hospital if that happens.’

‘I’m right here,’ I muttered as he was speaking to Heero about me, but the doctor just continued giving orders to Heero and I left them to it, closing my eyes again.

‘Duo?’ Heero said and I cracked one eye open to see him in front of me. ‘Lie down and rest for a bit. I’ll find Wufei and get the pickup.’

‘Already done,’ Wufei said from a bit further away. I cracked my other eye open to find him standing by the other end of the tent before he came in. He and Heero helped me get to my feet again and led me out towards the pickup.

‘Duo, bro!’ was called and I heard someone running towards us. ‘I’m really sorry.’

‘It’s fine, Broden,’ I said, having figured out who it was without opening my eyes.

‘Thanks, bro,’ he said, not sounding entirely convinced, and very contrite. ‘Get better, man.’

‘Yeah,’ I answered, trying to be polite even as my head was screaming bloody murder.

The hatch to the back of the pickup truck was unhitched and I winced at the metallic noise as it fell down.

‘Sorry,’ Wufei said. ‘How…?’

‘Duo? Can you get up on your own?’ Heero asked and I frowned, but thought it should be fine.

‘Give me a boost,’ I said and placed my hands on the truck and jumped. Heero’s hands on my waist helped me get high enough and I crawled up to sit with my back against the cab. Heero got up after me.

‘My board?’ I asked as I thought of it and Wufei swore slightly.

‘It’s in the medic tent still, I’ll get it.’

‘We’ve got it,’ Quatre said. He slid the board onto the truck with a loud, grating noise and I put my head between my knees. It was shortly followed by the sound of the hatch closing and I groaned.

‘Duo?’ Heero asked and started to stroke my back in small circles.

‘All good here,’ I said, and he grunted, obviously disagreeing with me.

‘Let’s go,’ he said anyways, and gave a soft tap on the windscreen.

Then it wasn’t so good anymore. The truck vibrated below me, and I almost threw up, but managed to swallow it back down. The noises from the wheels against the road, and the racket of the boards against the floor of the truck were overwhelming. I covered my ears with my hands.

Heero put his arm against my back and pulled me closer to him, an invitation that I immediately accepted. I turned to him and scooted down a bit to rest my head on his thigh. He put one hand on my shoulder, and the other started to massage the top of my head gently. I was amazed when it didn’t hurt, but rather felt amazing, and it made me forget the pain for a moment.

It came back with vigor when someone on the road decided to blast a horn and I pressed closer to Heero’s thigh.

He leaned over me, putting his chin on my shoulder.

‘Not so good, are you?’ he couldn’t avoid saying, and I had to abort a chuckle.

‘Peachy,’ I said, or whimpered, I wasn’t sure.

I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to feel a car come to a stop and to hear the engine shut off. I’ve never thought of how much noise an engine makes, or how much it vibrates, until every sound and motion made my head scream in pain.

‘Come on, Duo,’ Heero said and I shook my head against his thigh.

‘I’ll sleep here. Not moving anymore,’ I whispered and he put his hand on my cheek, stroking gently.

‘No, I’ll help you in. Come on,’ he said and I groaned, but obediently got to my knees. I crawled to the edge of the truck and turned to let my legs hang free over it. Heero jumped off and grabbed me under my knees. His other arm went behind my back and he lifted me off and walked towards the Safe house.

‘Put me down,’ I said, admittedly meekly, when I realized he was intending on carrying me all the way to the room.

‘I said I’ll help you,’ he said and I buried my head against the crook of his neck.

‘Didn’t say anything about carrying,’ I said, voice muffled by his neck and he took a deep breath.

‘You didn’t have to,’ he said and leaned down slightly, almost making me panic. Then the soft mattress of the bed was below me and he gently lowered me onto it. I burrowed my head into the pillows and closed my eyes, suddenly feeling incredibly tired.

‘Take the trunks off, Duo,’ he said and I sighed.

‘Just wanna sleep,’ I answered and covered my eyes with my arm, making Heero sigh.

‘They’re still wet, Duo. I’ll help.’

‘Just want to get into my pants,’ I muttered, but turned slightly as I felt his fingers on the waistband of my trunks, opening the knot of the string. I pushed them off myself, before curling in on myself again, not able to think about much else apart from the flashing pain in my head.

‘Go to sleep, Duo,’ Heero said and covered me in a blanket that I grabbed a hold of and cuddled tightly to myself.

‘Don’t leave,’ I asked as I felt the bed lift as he stood up. He hesitated for seconds, and I realized I probably shouldn’t have asked. ‘Sorry, I…’

‘No,’ he said and I felt the mattress dip as he sat down again. ‘I’ll stay.’

I let go of the blanket and put my hand around his waist instead, burrowing my head against his side, blocking out all light. He put one hand on my back, and the other on my head, continuing the massage he’d started on the truck.

I don’t usually feel safe when I’m injured, but here, with Heero, it was different.

I wanted to dream.


	10. Catching Waves

My shoulder was shaken gently and I pulled myself out of sleep. Still drowsy, I didn’t open my eyes more than a crack and immediately closed them again, intending on falling back to sleep.

‘Duo,’ Heero said softly, moving his hand gently over my shoulder. He wouldn’t let me fall asleep again.

The headache had receded from the sharp pain it had been previously. Now it was little more than a dull throb and I hoped the pain wouldn’t explode when I opened my eyes fully. It didn’t.

‘Duo,’ was said again, a little louder, and I turned to see Heero’s gentle smile.

‘Hey,’ I whispered and he smiled down at me with warm eyes.

‘Hey, how do you feel?’

‘Better,’ I said, but I was still more tired than I should have been. ‘Tired.’

‘It’s to be expected,’ he said and moved his fingers to my hair, pressing softly against my head.

‘’s nice,’ I said, encouraging him to continue. He made a soft, amused noise and kept moving his fingers languidly.

‘Hey, ‘Ro, what happened?’ I asked and his fingers hesitated for a moment before they started moving again.

‘You fell,’ he said slowly and I frowned. Why tell me things I’d been there for?

‘I remember that. What about the results?’

Heero let out a soft sigh and closed his eyes partially. He looked relived.

‘You got 7.58 for the one wave you caught. Broden got an eight though, so even though he got interference, he beat you.’

‘Yeah, he’s good,’ I said. I’d known him ever since Solo and I had gotten into the world of Pro surfing and I’d always been impressed by his moves. ‘Who won?’

‘Broden.’

‘Way to go,’ I said loudly, but closed my eyes with a groan as it made the pain in my head flare up.

‘Go back to sleep, Duo. I’ll wake you up later.’

‘Why are you being so nice?’ I asked and his fingers stopped again. He chuckled softly, sending vibrations through the mattress.

‘I’m not always an asshole,’ he answered and I nodded. ‘You had me worried.’

‘S’ry,’ I said, feeling myself drift towards sleep again. Heero sighed and continued the massage of my scalp, and I quickly feel back to sleep.

The next time I woke up, I was alone in the room. Or I thought I was, until I became aware of a warmth across my abdomen that was too heavy to be the blanket. I opened my eyes to peek down and saw Zero lying on the bed with his head on my stomach.

‘Hey, boy,’ I said and moved my hand to scratch behind his ear. He lifted his head and turned it slightly to lick at my hand before he stood up and got off the bed, walking out of the room, making me raise an eyebrow and shake my head carefully. He never left when I scratched him unless Heero whistled. I hadn’t heard a whistle.

My head felt heavy and stuffed, but I was sick of sleeping so I put my legs over the side of the bed, and had to steady myself as spots flew across my vision. Distantly, I felt someone grab a hold of my arm.

When the spots had disappeared Heero materialized in front of me.

‘Sorry, I’m still a bit dizzy, I guess,’ I said with an embarrassed smile. I wasn’t used to feeling this off. Especially not in front of someone I was deeply interested in. Someone I was falling head over heels for.

‘What are you doing up?’

‘Got bored of sleeping. What time is it?’ I asked and picked up my trunks that were still a bit damp, which told me it couldn’t have been that many hours since we’d gotten back. ‘Do you know where my backpack is by the way?’

‘Just after seven. We’ve got some dinner ready, would you like anything?’ He said as he bent down in the corner and picked up my backpack.

‘Maybe something light,’ I answered, not having felt nauseous since the ride in the truck, but I didn’t feel up to challenging myself with a lot of food.

Heero handed me my backpack from which I dug out a pair of underwear and my set of shorts, making Heero raise an eyebrow.

‘You seem to have everything in there,’ he said in amusement and I smiled, not wishing to tell him exactly how right he was.

‘I’ve found it practical to have some things around at all times,’ I answered as I shimmied into my clothes.

Everything went a lot slower than usually, making me feel sluggish but Heero didn’t say a word about it. He waited patiently until I’d gotten into my clothes and then walked next to me. Closely. Probably ready to catch me if I got dizzy again, and I felt warmth spread through my chest.

‘Thanks, ‘Ro,’ I said silently to him.

‘You’re very welcome,’ he answered and then we walked out onto the deck where the rest of the guys were sitting.

Quatre flew up quick enough to make me think I’d lost a second somewhere, and he pulled out one more chair for me. I sat down, relieved to be off my somewhat unsteady feet.

‘How are you?’ Quatre asked silently and I grinned for him.

‘A lot better. Did anyone catch the wave that hit me?’ I asked and saw a round of rolled eyes on everyone. Only Trowa laughed for me, so I gave him a wide smile.

‘Dig in,’ Quatre said and I put a scoop of noodles onto the plate Heero had fetched for me. He’d also gotten me a glass of water and a Tylenol, which I gratefully swallowed.

With the first bite of noodles, I felt them about to turn around in my stomach and I leaned back in the chair with the glass of water in my hand. Obviously it was too soon for me to attempt to eat anything.

Zero came out to join us, and I thought he was going to beg for food, but he just lay down on top of my feet. I realized how cold they had been as the warmth of his fur covered them.

It was nice, having dinner with a group of people again, even though I wasn’t actually eating anything. I listened to their easy conversation that spoke of how long they’d all known each other. Normally, I would have entered the conversation with vigor, but still feeling a bit lethargic, I just threw in the occasional comment. The sun had started to set, but as always on the island, it was still warm.

‘Duo?’

I snapped my eyes open, feeling disoriented for a second, before remembering I was in one of the sun-chairs on the deck. The table had been cleared already and I frowned, surprised that I hadn’t woken up by the noise. Surprised that I’d fallen asleep at all.

‘Shit,’ I murmured, and brought my hand to my forehead where I felt the coarse texture of the compress that had been applied over the gash I’d gotten. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you guys.’

‘It’s all right,’ Heero just said, putting a hand on my knee. Zero had already placed his head on my other knee and was watching me attentively. ‘Do you want to go back to bed?’

‘I…’ I didn’t really want to, I was sick of sleeping, but my head was still feeling heavy, and my eyes kept wanting to fall closed. I sighed ‘Yeah.’

Heero put his hand under my elbow and I felt like an old man as I slowly got up and we made our way to Heero’s bed.

‘I’ll have to get a larger bed if you’re going to keep sleeping here,’ Heero said lightly as he crawled in next to me, but I was unsure if he was joking or not.

‘Sorry,’ I said, just in case, and he leaned up on his elbow, looking into my eyes.

‘I wouldn’t mind,’ he said, and a small smirk appeared on his face. ‘I like having you in my bed.’

I was very pleased at hearing that, and chuckled softly.

‘I like being here,’ I said and raised my head a bit to capture his lips in a kiss. He put his free hand behind my head and deepened the kiss for a second before he drew back and lay his head down on the pillow next to me.

I turned to him, putting my left leg over his, and wrapped my arm around his waist. He snaked his own arm under my neck and put his other hand over my arm, brushing it slowly with his thumb.

‘Hey, ‘Ro. What… are we doing?’ I asked, finally dredging up the courage to start the talk I’d wanted to have since the morning.

‘What do you mean?’

‘This. Are we… I don’t know… boyfriends?’

‘Do you want to be?’

He looked me straight in the eyes and I tried to find any sign of what he wanted.

‘I don’t know? Yeah? I guess…’

‘That sounds convincing,’ he said in a droll voice.

‘Shit! Yes, damn it,’ I said and buried my head against his shoulder, but was forced to look at him when he moved his hand and lifted my chin up slightly.

‘I’ll be your boyfriend, Duo, if you’ll have me,’ he said, looking me straight in the eyes. The sincerity in his voice made me shiver and I nodded.

‘Yeah,’ I said under my breath, and he leaned in to kiss me again. It was soft, and slow. I felt other parts of me awaken and I pressed closer to him. He smiled but caught my hand as I traced it downwards on his abdomen. I could feel him against my leg, so I knew he was excited as well, and I was confused.

‘You have a concussion,’ he explained in amusement. ‘No strenuous activities.’

‘I’ll kill Broden next time I meet him,’ I muttered, burying my head against Heero’s shoulder.

‘ _Now_ you’re mad with him?’ he asked with a chuckle and I laughed a bit as well. Carefully, so I wouldn’t aggravate my throbbing head.

‘Didn’t have a reason to be before.’

‘Right,’ he said, not entirely convinced.

It was just as well that we didn’t do anything as my eyes soon fell closed and I was sleeping.

When I woke up, we had rolled away from each other, and there was a thin sheen of sweat over both our bodies from the heat. My head was feeling considerably better, and I watched my boyfriend sleep for a while. My boyfriend. I rolled the thought over in my mind; liking the elated feeling I got from it.

His chest lifted up and down slowly with every breath and I was transfixed by the way the sweat glistened on his skin. His lips were slightly parted, his face looking entirely relaxed, making him look younger. No, not younger; making him look his age.

When I’d first met him, I thought his face was carved in stone. I had thought he was unable to smile or laugh, but I’d been proved wrong, and I’d fallen in love with the sound of his laughter, and the way his lips curled into a small smile. I’d fallen in love with him just as swiftly as I’d fallen in love with the ocean.

_Dangerous_.

It was dangerous. It was scary, and it was thrilling. To grow attached to someone new hadn’t been in my plan. It had been as far from being in my plan as possible. I’d meant to surf on my own, practice on my own, until I could finally live the dream that Solo and I had both had of surfing the Rift.

I leaned over Heero and turned on the screen on his cell phone. The glaring brightness from the screen made my eyes water as I read that the clock wasn’t even four in the morning. There was no use going back to sleep, so I slid down to the foot of the bed and got out silently.

Claws scratched against the floor as Zero stood up from where he’d been lying. I put my hand on his head and we went out to the deck. I moved one of the chairs a bit to look out over the ocean and sat down, Zero curling up next to me.

It was dark, so I couldn’t see the water as more than a dark outline, but I could hear it as the waves broke and the water rushed onto the beach before being pulled back to form a new wave.

Like Heero had reminded me the previous night, it wasn’t recommended to do any strenuous activities so soon after having suffered a concussion so I stayed away from getting my board and testing the waters. I didn’t think I’d win any points with Heero if I did that anyways.

The soft sound of bare feet walking towards me came to my ears and I turned around to see Heero.

‘I didn’t mean to wake you up,’ I said silently, afraid of waking anyone else.

‘It’s fine. How are you?’ he asked and lifted up a chair of his own and placed it next to me.

‘I’m good. The headache’s gone and I actually feel like I might survive,’ I said and we both chuckled a bit.

‘What happened out there?’ he asked and I frowned. He’d seen it all. ‘You let a lot of nice waves go,’ he clarified.

‘Broden was paddling for them.’

‘But you had priority,’ he said, sounding confused, and I sighed.

‘Do you… know about Solo?’

‘Sally gave me the magazine, but I haven’t read it,’ he answered slowly, almost cautiously, as though uncertain of how I’d react.

‘I took a wave that I had priority on. It was the last seconds of the heat and I was below him in points.’

Zero whimpered slightly and got to his feet, putting his head in my lap, making me laugh.

‘You sure this dog doesn’t understand human speech?’

‘Just emotions,’ Heero answered and put his hand atop of mine. I spread my fingers and he intertwined his fingers with mine.

‘I called out for him, and he looked over his shoulder at me. He _winked_ at me. He was my best friend, we’ve surfed the same wave on numerous occasions. We’ve always known where the other is going…’ I tapered off and took a deep breath as my eyes were stinging with unshed tears.

_Boys don’t cry._

Heero squeezed my hand under his, and got to his feet. I tilted my head slightly and looked at him in confusion as he bent down next to me, grabbed me under my knees and behind my back, and lifted me up. I laughed and wrapped my arm around his neck as he sat down in his chair with me in his lap.

He kept his arm around my back where it had been and placed his other arm around my waist. I leaned against his chest, and slid down slightly over his legs until I could put my head on his shoulder. It was lucky the chair didn’t have armrests, or it could have been a very uncomfortable position.

‘That’s better,’ he said and tilted his head a bit to kiss me on the forehead.

‘I’ll get addicted to using your chest as a pillow,’ I said, listening to the steady beat of his heart under my ear, feeling my head rise up and down in time with his breathing.

‘As long as it’s mine,’ he said and I laughed.

‘I did say yours, didn’t I?’ I said and we grew silent for a while. He was gently stroking his hand along my back and I brushed my lips over his chest in a kiss.

‘I messed up on the wave. I got too high and too much air got under my board, dropping me in the water and my board shot ahead. When I got up, I didn’t see Solo anywhere, and the jet-skis were already coming towards us.’

I shivered, remembering the horror I’d felt when I’d seen the jet skis. They definitely weren’t coming for me, and I’d immediately taken off the leash to my board and started diving, looking for Solo along the reef.

‘I couldn’t find him anywhere. It was minutes before I saw his board, stuck against the reef, and I thought… I hoped…’

Heero’s arm tightened around me.

‘I followed the leash on his board to find that it trailed in under the reef. I tried to dive under, but the backwash tried to suck me in. It’s when I got the scar.’ Heero moved his hand to trace the scar over my waist. ‘All I could to was to pull at the cord.’

Heero took a sharp breath but didn’t say anything.

I stared unseeingly out over the ocean. ‘He was already dead.’ That prickly feeling behind my eyes refused to go away and I blinked.

Solo’s eyes had been wide open when I’d gotten him out. I’d taken him to the surface where the guys on one of the jet-skis took him from me, and I’d been helped up onto the other.

‘I’m so sorry,’ Heero said softly, holding me tightly, and I took a deep breath.

‘Shit, I shouldn’t be pouring all this on you,’ I said and lifted myself up a bit, but he pulled me down.

‘I asked. I knew he’d died, I just didn’t…’ He tapered off and took a deep breath. ‘But Duo, it wasn’t your fault.’

‘I should have broken out when I saw he wasn’t leaving. Damn it, some points and priority aren’t worth killing someone over.’

‘No,’ he agreed. ‘But he was a good surfer, right?’

I nodded against his chest.

‘Then he knew it was dangerous to stay behind. He made his own choice.’

‘He trusted me, though,’ I said, not ready to give up the blame I’d placed on myself ever since his death. He’d trusted me to be able to handle being on the same wave as him. We’d done it so many times before.

‘Duo, please don’t take this the wrong way,’ Heero started and a sudden chill spread through my veins. What the hell was I doing? Spilling my dark past to a guy I barely knew, even if we obviously were very attracted to each other. I really wanted to get to know him better, but now I was scaring him away with my less than attractive baggage.

I lifted myself up away from his chest and he let me go this time, but put his hands on my legs, to keep me on his lap. I tried to search his face for any indication of what he wanted to say. His face was drawn, his brows slightly furrowed, making him look sad.

‘You need to let it go,’ he said, and I stared at him. He didn’t turn his eyes away, and neither did I. ‘You hurt yourself out there today because of a memory. No matter what happened, I’m sure Solo wouldn’t condone that.’

‘He wouldn’t move,’ I said to defend myself.

‘He _did_ move,’ Heero answered and I frowned. ‘A split second after you, he turned out.’

‘Shit,’ I said, as the realization settled in my mind. I hadn’t needed to veer and get hit by the wave. And yet, in the back of my mind, I had the feeling that I deserved it. I deserved anything I got after what I’d done against Solo.

‘My board hit him in the head, that’s what made him fall,’ I said, and when I heard my own words, I realized I had said it like a challenge. Tell me to let it go now, asshole. His face twisted, almost as though he was in pain, and he pulled me back against his chest.

‘Gods, Duo,’ he said, gently brushing kisses over my forehead, and I didn’t know what to feel.

Anger? Maybe, but mostly with myself.

Regret? Yes, but I couldn’t change anything. I couldn’t not veer away with Broden, just as little as I could veer away with Solo. It was over and done with.

Love? Most definitely, but I was scared.

Maybe that summed it up. I was scared. Scared of killing anyone else. Scared of pushing Heero away. Scared of letting him get too close.

‘I’m really sorry, ‘Ro. I’m not usually an emotional wreck,’ I said after a moment, and Heero sighed.

‘Duo, you don’t have to...’ he tapered off and I frowned, pushing off of his chest again.

‘Stop doing that.’

‘Doing what?’

‘Starting to say something and then just – don’t.’

He smiled.

‘You don’t have to explain yourself. You don’t have to hide from me; I want to hear it. I want to know everything about you, even the darker parts. If it makes you an emotional wreck to talk about Solo, that’s fine, as long as I get to be here to hold you.’ He held my eyes fast with his own before he gave a slightly embarrassed smile.

I was stunned at the flow of words, of reassurances. But mostly, I was stunned at the fact that he wanted to get to know me. That he wasn’t only interested in my body, although we definitely had an undeniable attraction to each other, it was a huge relief to know that there could be more to our relationship that that.

‘Me too,’ I said finally, when he’d started to look a bit worried. ‘I want to know everything about you as well.’

I shifted on his lap to get higher. I leaned in to kiss him and he responded willingly. When we broke off his eyes fixed on the horizon and I followed his gaze. The sun was rising, spreading its orange waves over the ocean that was catching them greedily, reflecting the beauty of the sun.

‘Finally,’ Heero breathed. ‘Finally, I’m watching the sunrise with you instead of just watching you in the sunrise.’

‘I could watch it forever,’ I said, loving the way the sun licked the waves with its light.

‘Yeah,’ he murmured, completely transfixed. I turned to look deep into his eyes.

The sun reflected just as nicely in his eyes as it did in the waves.

I wondered how I’d managed to catch this one, and hoped I wouldn’t wipe out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments make my day.


	11. Swells

The next couple of weeks were dreamy in a way I never could have expected when coming to Sanc.

Heero managed to convince me to go surfing together with them during the day more. I went out during some nights as well, but Heero always joined now. To keep an eye on me he said, not that he minded. During the day, I still stayed away from any paddle battles, but I went in a little more aggressively than I liked, trying to get over, or at least decrease, my fear of a repeat performance happening. I would not be the cause of any more deaths.

After the surfing we typically had dinner together. The money I earned from working at Howard’s was enough to buy the guys a smaller dinner once in a while, which went a long way towards making me feel a little better about myself. I ate at the Safe house every evening before I went back to my shed.

I hadn’t slept in Heero’s bed again. When I stopped being under the control of my hormones, I’d figured out I wanted to get to know him better before we got any heavy stuff going. It was difficult to keep my hands off of him, and I noticed exactly the same tendency in him. We had spoken about it, and we’d agreed it was better to wait a bit. For every evening that went by it was harder and harder to make myself leave and go back to the small, dark shed I used as my sleeping place.

The bell from the door sounded and I stopped my musings and the shelf refill as I looked up in the mirror to see who it was.

‘Howard?’ I asked in surprise, and walked around the shelf to come face to face with him. He never used the front entrance.

‘You got this yesterday, kid,’ he said and put an envelope into my hand. I turned it over and saw it was sent from the Pro League and I smiled; my money from the last contest had finally arrived. I’d be able to get it to the organizer of Gundams in time.

‘Thanks, old man,’ I said, having taken to calling him that anytime he called me kid. I was about as much of a kid that he was an old man. It never bothered him. I was more bothered by constantly being called kid.

‘The door at the back isn’t opening again,’ he said, without me needing to ask, and I groaned. It was the third time this week it had jammed. ‘But I wanted to talk to you anyways. I got a call just now, and I need to go off into the city today. Could you take the shop until I get back?’

‘Sure,’ I answered immediately, with a spare thought towards missing surfing with the guys that evening. They’d live without my company. ‘Howie, do you think I can get a few days off when Gundams are on?’

He looked at me incredulously, and I felt my spirits drop. Even if I had the money to enter, it didn’t make any difference if I couldn’t take time off.

‘We’re closing during Gundams,’ he said off-handedly and I raised an eyebrow before grinning widely. ‘You’re on Sanc, kid. You forget surfing is a national sport here, and Gundams is the finals.’

It was very hard to forget actually; the locals kept reminding me about it. There were only two qualifiers left, the first of which was running this weekend, and it seemed as though every local surfer that still had a chance were doing their best to qualify. Except for Heero and Quatre, of course. I had yet to figure out why.

‘I’ll be back around five,’ Howard said and went out again.

I finished refilling the shelves before I repacked the check into a new envelope with my registration for Gundams, and put it in the mail right outside of the shop. It was a slow day and I even got some time to fix the jammed door in the back before everyone started to get off work.

I had only been in the shop once before when regular office hours ended. By five the shop was crowded, making me wonder how Howard did it by himself. The milk someone had spilled had to wait until after the rush had calmed down. When I was swabbing the floor the bell rang again to announce a new arrival. I looked into the mirror and groaned when I saw who it was.

Alex and Mueller.

‘It’s the Pro!’ Mueller said loudly when he saw me and I frowned. It wasn’t so much what he said, as how he said it. But I’d promised Howard no fights, and I wasn’t going to go back on that, so I retreated to behind the counter, leaned my elbows on it, and watched them walk through the aisles.

‘The one that’s afraid to surf?’ Alex said after a minute or so of silence. It might have been a decent line if it had come immediately, but it didn’t have the same punch when he’d apparently needed to think about it.

‘Yup, that’s the one,’ Mueller answered and they came up to the counter.

‘I checked the pro rankings yesterday,’ I said, possibly with a bit of an arrogant edge, but I didn’t care. Wufei and I had gone over the different scenarios that would let him have a continued chance of qualifying for Gundams. I’d glanced at the Pro rankings while we’d been at it.

I looked straight into Alex’s eyes. ‘I’m still higher than you, despite hiatus.’

He clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes, making my hairs stand on edge. His fists were clenched, and his knuckles were white. I would have taken a step back if it didn’t make me feel like a coward. And that it would make them smile smugly, thinking they’d won.

‘Current rankings don’t matter. I’ll squash you at the Rift.’

‘You will try,’ I answered calmly, and managed to avoid flinching when Mueller’s hand slammed onto the counter.

‘We both will crush you. You’re not even half the surfer we are.’

‘You’re not even qualified.’ The words came out of me before I had time to stop them. I knew I shouldn’t be provoking them, but my mouth always had been the thing got me into trouble.

Mueller drew back his arm, presumably to punch me, and I started ducking at the same time as Alex pushed him back.

‘Rift Wars, Maxwell!’ Alex said and pushed Mueller out of the shop without buying anything. I took a deep breath in relief, slumping onto the counter, thankful I wouldn’t have to explain yet another fight to Howard.

I shouldn’t have been so quick in letting myself believe it was over. About an hour later, Mueller came back in, with a bat in his hand. His eyes were narrowed and immediately sought me out. He smirked and stepped through the door.

‘There are security cameras,’ I warned him.

‘See if I care,’ he said and swung the bat against the shelf with beer. The glass shattered and beer rushed out over the floor. I hit the alarm button before I jumped over the counter and ran at him. When he aimed the bat at me I skidded to a stop on the wet floor. I didn’t have any wish to get beaten, but I wasn’t about to let him destroy the store either.

‘I’ll smash your skull in!’ he said, and I held my hands up.

‘What of the Rift Wars?’

‘It’ll be a win by default when you don’t show,’ he said and put his weight behind another swing against the shelves. For once, my previous life on the streets proved valuable, and I moved in to grab a hold of the base of the bat, above his hand. He tried to push me back, but I held my ground.

‘I’m not letting you break Howard’s store.’

‘You’re nothing compared to Alex anyway!’ he said and kicked my knee hard, making it turn oddly and I crumbled to the ground. I still held on to the bat, so I used the force of going down to pull him towards me before I pushed against the bat so its handle hit him hard in his groin.

He dropped the bat and curled in on himself. I stumbled to my feet and limped over to the counter so I could catch my breath.

The door slammed open and I looked up, expecting the police, but it was Heero. I wondered whether I should tell him to get the hell away or if I should be relieved that he was here. I settled on feeling relieved. Two against one was better odds.

‘What the…?’ he said, taking the scene in for a moment before he moved directly to me.

Sirens could be heard coming closer and Mueller gingerly got up to his feet. He stopped straightening himself while he was still standing halfway bent over. He raised his head to look at me.

‘You’re not getting away, fag!’ he said, and Heero’s shoulders tensed up. As did mine. Did Mueller know? Or was he only using the word as a common curse?

‘I think you’re the one not getting away,’ I told him calmly. A lot calmer than I felt. ‘I told you there are security cameras, didn’t I?’

‘Fucking fag!’ he said, and half-limped, half-ran out of the store.

I let myself slump back against the counter. Heero placed himself in front of me, put his hands on my arms, and looked into my eyes worriedly.

‘Are you hurt?’

‘No,’ I said and flexed my knee. It didn’t hurt quite as much anymore and I was sure it had only been a hard hit, without actually damaging anything. ‘He got me on my knee, but I think it’ll just bruise.’

‘You sure?’

‘Yeah. What are you doing here anyways? You’re never here on Fridays,’ I said and tilted my head up to kiss him after a quick glance at the door to ensure we were alone.

‘You didn’t show up, and I got worried. For good reason apparently,’ he said and threw a pointed look towards the mess on the floor.

‘Shit, I have to clean up before Howie gets back.’

‘Too late,’ Heero said, looking towards the door and Howard was walking towards it together with two policemen, making me groan. It’s not like it would have been possible for me to hide it from Howard anyways, but a little time to clean up would have been nice.

It ended up being hours before we left. The police wanted statements, and the videos from the altercation. Then we cleaned everything up, and I helped Howard do the final calculations of the day before closing up.

Heero gave me a ride back, and shot glances at me out of the corner of his eye. I sat in silence and picked at small glass pieces from broken beer bottles in my hands. I was annoyed. Annoyed at having let Mueller come in and mess everything up.

‘What’s wrong?’ he finally asked and I shrugged.

‘If I’d shut up earlier, Mueller wouldn’t have come back and tried to wreck the place,’ I said and Heero laughed.

‘You need to get over yourself, Duo,’ he said in amusement, and I frowned. ‘Not everything is your fault. Mueller is an ass, he would have found some reason anyways.’

‘Yeah, maybe you’re right,’ I said. Maybe he was right, but even then, I didn’t think Mueller would have gone after the shop as much as he would have gone after me.

‘I know I’m right,’ he said and I gave him a soft laugh, letting it go. It didn’t help regretting it. It had happened, and with any luck, Mueller was about to spend some time in jail for destruction of property and assault.

‘I can get off here,’ I said and he frowned but stopped the truck.

‘Duo,’ he said slowly and I looked at him, knowing already what he was going to say. He’d never driven me to the shed before. ‘We’re at Willow’s Point. There’s nothing here.’

‘I know,’ I answered, leaned forwards to capture his lips in a kiss before I got out of the truck. ‘Thanks for the help, ‘Ro. See you tomorrow after the qualifiers. Right?’

‘Right,’ he answered with a confused glance my way.

I limped off towards the shed. I didn’t climb inside until I heard him drive off. It took a good five minutes. Heero didn’t need to know how I lived. I didn’t want him to feel forced into offering help. Hell, I didn’t need help. It was a perfectly decent place to sleep.

Heero had said I should stop blaming myself, but I’ve always had a tendency of kicking myself, even for things that aren’t obviously my fault. In my eyes, this was an obvious case of “Duo makes a mistake”, and thus, I felt guilty about it.

I sat down on my makeshift bed out of sand and blankets and leaned my head in my hands. Everything had been going along nicely, and then Alex and Mueller had to go and show up.

‘Damn!’ I said and hit my hand against the sand, feeling incredibly unsatisfied at the way the sand moved for my fist. I turned to slam it against the wall instead. The pain that shot up through my arm didn’t exactly help, but it gave me something to focus my anger on rather than Alex and Mueller.

I lay down on the bed, poking at my scratched hand, and found another piece of glass in it. I grabbed a hold of it and pulled it out. I put it away in a pocket in my backpack. It wouldn’t be very nice if I were to step on it in the morning so I wanted to make sure it was out of the way before I lay back down to sleep.

It was impossible. I kept twisting and turning, trying to find some comfortable position, trying to stop thinking, but sleep wasn’t coming for me. I got up from the bed, fully intending to go surfing when my eyes landed on the box in the corner that I’d put there almost a month ago.

If I went out to surf, Zero would tip Heero off, and he’d know I couldn’t let it go. He’d try to help, because that’s what he does, but I wasn’t ready for him to help me let it go yet. I wanted to be angry for a while. It would be better in the morning, once I’d had time to work through it. I’d always used surfing before, as a way to take my mind off of things and in lieu of that I wasn’t sure what I’d do.

So I did the only thing that I could do except thinking in the small shed. I started to read the letters, and I was amazed.

There wasn’t a single letter in there that didn’t contain words of support. I spent all night reading them. They were of various lengths, and some were riddled with errors where others were so eloquent I didn’t understand half of the words, but I read them all with rapt attention. There was one letter in particular that caught my attention, because it mentioned the Sanc legends, wanting me to surf against them in Gundams, and I knew I’d have to show the guys. They were the Sanc legends after all.

After I put the last letter down, I realized G had probably filtered them through already, to get rid of any hate mail. It didn’t matter though, it had lifted my spirits, and I ran off to work with the normal spring in my step.

It was weird, entering the shop, and having it look as usual. The only thing that indicated that anything had happened the previous day was a small dent on the shelf with the beer.

‘You need a phone, kid,’ Howard called from the back room and I went to join him and check what he was doing up already. He was carrying two cases of beer up the stairs from the basement and I realized I’d never refilled the shelf yesterday. I ran down and grabbed one case from him.

‘I never needed one.’

‘If you’d had one, I could’ve called and told you not to come in today. Now, you came all this way for nothing,’ he said and I stopped in the middle of the stairs as my blood ran cold. Was he firing me?

I turned to look at him. ‘Howie?’

‘You got a double shift yesterday, kid. I ain’t got the money to pay you overtime. Go watch the competitions.’

‘Really?’ I asked, pleasantly surprised, and kept walking up the stairs. He laughed at me.

I placed the case of beer on the counter. ‘I can help –‘

‘Go! See you Monday, kid.’

‘See ya, old man,’ I said, abandoning the beer and ran the half-hour back to the beach.

The first heat had already started when I got there, and I looked at the board where I saw that Wufei wouldn’t surf until the fourth heat. Trowa was also entered in the contest and his first heat would be the one just after Wufei’s. Mueller’s name was on the board as well, but not even he would be able to blow my good mood away.

I walked across the beach until I saw Trowa, Quatre and Wufei. Zero sat next to Quatre, pushing up sand with his slowly moving tail. Quatre pointed towards the contestants in the water and Wufei nodded.

‘Hey, guys,’ I said when it seemed as though they had stopped talking and Quatre turned to me with a wide smile.

‘I thought you were working,’ he said and I flopped down next to Zero in the sand.

‘So did I, until Howie told me I wasn’t.’

‘I still can’t get over that Boss actually lets you call him Howie,’ Trowa said in plain amusement.

‘That’s why he told him he couldn’t work anymore,’ Wufei said flatly and I threw some sand on his leg. Half of it landed on Quatre making him exclaim an indignant ‘Hey!’

‘Or, I helped him out for hours yesterday and he thought I could use some time off to watch your sorry ass fall over in the waves,’ I said and Quatre pushed at my shoulder while chuckling.

‘Hey, I’ve trained him, he won’t fall on his ass nearly as much as he did,’ he said, and I laughed.

‘I apologize humbly,’ I said, grinning widely.

‘You should,’ he said and turned to Wufei with playfully narrowed eyes. ‘Just don’t fall on your sorry ass in there.’

‘Thanks, Quatre,’ Wufei said with a roll of his eyes and continued to wax his board.

Wufei was a lot more relaxed this time around. Last time he had been pacing, but this time he sat calmly, watching the waves as he moved his hand on his board. It was a good sign.

I looked at the surfers, but more often than not, my eyes strayed towards the jet-skis where Heero was. He had all his focus on the waters, and I couldn’t help but think that he looked incredible out there. His biceps flexed as he adjusted the strength of his grip on the handles and accelerator according to how the water flowed. His wet hair clung to his face, and the wetsuit hugged his body tightly, not leaving much for the imagination.

‘Duo, you’ll miss Wufei’s ass falling into the water if you keep watching Heero’s,’ Trowa said into my ear and I blushed hotly as both he and Quatre laughed at me.

It did make me turn away from Heero and watch as Wufei and the two others in his heat paddled out towards the lineup.

Wufei held back for almost five minutes before he caught his first wave, making Quatre a little antsy, but he did great. The wave was about eight feet, and he moved on top of it casually, his aggressiveness having simmered down. I could see some of Quatre’s fluidity in the moves.

‘Damn, Q’, you’ve done a great job,’ I told him and he shook his head.

‘Wufei’s a surprisingly good listener, once he gets over his hurt pride,’ Quatre said, before he got up to join Trowa at the check-in. ‘I’ll be back in five.’

‘I’ll be here,’ I said, but when Wufei came back before Quatre, I began to wonder where he’d gotten to, so I told Wufei much the same that Quatre had said to me, and went in search of the missing blond. Zero trotted behind me.

Quatre wasn’t very hard to find. He stood opposite to an older guy. Quatre’s brows were wrinkled and his lips were set in a thin line, obviously not very happy about his current position. As I got closer, I understood why. It was his father, and they were arguing.

‘Leave him alone!’ Quatre said in a tight voice, his hands clenched at his sides.

‘He is your boyfriend then?’ his father asked, and his voice reminded me of a growling animal.

‘What if he is? Would it matter? All I ever do is disappoint you anyways.’

‘You don’t use your abilities.’

‘I don’t want to! I don’t want to become a pro surfer that has absolutely no time to spend with his family,’ Quatre said, and it was apparent it was a line he’d used many time before, both on his voice and his father’s nonexistent reaction to it.

‘I want the best for you,’ Zayeed said, and even I couldn’t avoid rolling my eyes.

‘Then you’d let me live my life, with whomever I wish and doing whatever I wish,’ Quatre said, exasperated.

‘No son of mine is going to…’

‘Then disown me! I’ve had enough of you,’ Quatre said and took a step forward, passed his father.

‘You always were a disappointment,’ the ex-pro said and walked off.

I wanted to rush up and hit him, but then I saw the desolate and broken look on Quatre’s face, which made me go to him instead and wrap him in my arms. He buried his head against my neck and he was shaking. I didn’t know if it was in sadness or in anger.

‘Q’…’ I said softly and stroked his back. ‘He’s not worth it. If he doesn’t know how to appreciate his own son, no matter what, he’s not worth it.’

‘I spent… all my childhood on trying to make him proud,’ Quatre said, his words muffled slightly against my neck. ‘He was my hero.’

‘I know,’ I said, but I didn’t know. Not really. I’d never had a father, but I’d had a hero in Solo, and I couldn’t even imagine what it would have felt like if he’d left me willingly. What it would have felt like if he’d disagreed with my choice of potential partners. It wouldn’t have been nice.

‘He just… I don’t know why I can’t get over it,’ he said and drew a deep breath before he pushed himself away from me. He drew his thumbs over his eyes to get rid of any wetness.

‘However much of an ass he is, he’s still your father,’ I said and Quatre forced a chuckle.

‘You’re so articulate,’ he said and smiled without conviction.

Trowa headed up from the water then, and I immediately caught his eyes and nodded for him to come over. He took one look at Quatre, and somehow he knew, dropped his surfboard into the sand, and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend, for once not caring who might see.

‘We’re leaving,’ he said to me, and I nodded and watched as they left.

They didn’t come back for the entire day, so Trowa defaulted on his next heat. Wufei did a lot better. He made his way to the semifinals, where he finally plunged onto his ass. Of course I didn’t laugh until after he’d surfaced again. To be honest, I thought his best points should have been higher than the other guy’s. It’s always a matter of judgment, however. There are several judges that are able to see the moves from more angles than I. Even though I liked Wufei’s better, I’d only seen both his and his competitor’s moves from the front. The judges were in better positions to make that call. Besides, I was biased.

Wufei joined me at the beach to watch the finals and I congratulated him on the great score. And his continued chance of qualifying to Gundams, which was what mattered to him. He wasn’t many points away from qualifying, I was sure he’d get it during the next qualifiers.

Once everything was finished, Heero joined us as well and I put my arm around his shoulders, stroking his shoulder discreetly with my thumb

‘I knew you were a pansy,’ someone said behind me and I tensed up, flinching away from Heero. Heero’s hand settled in the small of my back as I turned around to face the speaker, but I stepped away from the touch. Mueller stood a couple of steps away from us with a sneer on his face.

‘Ignore him,’ Heero said into my ear, trying to get me to leave, but I couldn’t.

‘Don’t take your last place out on me,’ I told him and he narrowed his eyes.

‘You’re not even competing.’

‘It’s not a Pro-registered event,’ I answered flatly and felt Heero put his hand on my shoulder instead, still trying to get me to leave it alone. Zero pressed against my leg, growling slightly. Heero didn’t tell him to stop.

‘You won’t win against Alex anyways. No poof ever would,’ he said.

‘He’ll have a hard time if he doesn’t do better than his rankings indicate,’ I said, and Mueller took a step forward just as Wufei stepped in between us.

‘Let’s go,’ Heero said and I nodded and we walked up the beach. Wufei soon joined us, obviously having managed to get away from Mueller without any bloodshed.

‘Hey, hang on here for a bit,’ I said as I remembered the letter I wanted to show the guys. I held out my backpack for Heero to take and he accepted with a slightly raised eyebrow. ‘I’ll just go and fetch something, I’ll be back in a moment.’

I ran to the shed and crawled in through the window. The letters had scattered, probably from the wind, and I spread them out to try and find the one I wanted when I smelled smoke behind me and heard the angry roar of sudden fire from the outside.

I took a big step to get to the window and flinched back as flames roared up and licked towards my face. The fire was already covering the wall, and at least a few feet out on the grass, giving me no chance of getting out through that window.

‘Hey!’ I cried out and banged on the boarded up door, hoping that someone was close enough to hear me.

I kicked at it, and threw myself at it, but it wouldn’t budge, and the black smoke was gathering thickly against the roof, making me cough.

‘Hey!’ I cried again. ‘Help!’

The sound of laughter reached my ears and I understood.

‘Mueller, you ass! I’ll kill you!’

‘You’ll have to get out first,’ he called back and I yelled in frustration, ending in an uncontrollable cough.

I kicked hard against the door again but it didn’t move an inch. How could I have let myself get caught without a way out?

Maybe I really did need a phone.


	12. Caught Inside

Smoke was crawling its way into the shed through the cracks and it made my eyes water. Every breath I took felt like a struggle and the air coming into my lungs was far too hot. I had lain down on the sand to get away from the thick black smoke that was gathering at the top.

Sparks had flown in from outside and the letters that were strewn out after my rummaging had caught fire. With as much strength as I could muster, I had pushed sand onto them, making them simmer out. At least the fire had yet to start eating on the shed from the inside. I kicked against the door again and began to cough with the added strain. The door still refused to move and I realized how futile it was. I would have to jump out through the burning window, or I would be caught.

Out of the smoke, into the fire.

Shit!

Then I heard my rescue! There was a scratching noise from the outside, and then a loud bark.

‘Zero!’ I called, as loud as I could. ‘Get Heero! Get Heero, boy!’ I coughed harshly as more smoke entered my throat.

‘Duo!’ was called back immediately, and I would have laughed if I hadn’t thought it would make me cough my lungs up.

Then something slammed against the door, and I had enough sense to roll out of its way, in case he did manage to smash it open. Nothing happened, and then the door was slammed against again. It bulged ever so slightly, and then one more crash and it flew open. Everything went orange as the fire licked its way inside along the wall through the new opening.

I moved immediately, removing my arm from covering my mouth and nose, and crawled towards the exit when my arm was grabbed and I was pulled out. I stumbled to my feet once out of the smoke, coughing harshly, and was supported by Heero as we staggered away from the fire.

Once we reached the sand of the beach I dropped to my knees and Heero went down with me. I turned back towards the shed to see the flames climb high towards the sky with a crackling noise. The side with the window was completely lit up, and the fire was working its way towards the other side where my board was leaning…

_My board!_

I was on my feet, intent on running towards it before I knew it, and I felt Heero’s hand brush against my leg, trying to stop me. I was gone before he managed to close his hand, and I flew towards the board. I didn’t dare to hesitate; I had to get to it.

It was warm, almost scalding and I pushed it away from the wall rather than lifting it away. Then my hand was grabbed,

the board was lifted, and Heero dragged both of us away, back to the beach again.

He dropped the board and shook his hand slightly before he put it on my shoulder.

‘Sit down, Duo,’ he said, sounding distant, and I frowned, but bent my knees, obeying without a thought that I should have done it slowly. His eyes widened, and he grabbed my under my elbows, slowing my descent.

‘Easy,’ he said as I hit the sand with my knees. ‘Zero, sit!’ There was a small whimper from the side. ‘Sit.’

Then Heero sat down in front of me, covering my vision, and looked straight into my eyes.

‘Duo,’ he said softly.

He put his arms around me and pulled me forwards. I leaned into his embrace, putting my head on his shoulder. He felt cool against my warm skin. It felt good. It felt stabilizing. The fear I’d felt inside of the shed fled as though it had never been there. I felt safe.

‘Thank you,’ I breathed, and wrapped my own arms around him, holding on tightly.

‘Gods, Duo. What were you doing in there?’ he asked, but I just hugged tighter, not ready to talk, not ready to do anything but hold on to the fact that I was fine.

‘Heero!’ Wufei called, and I let go of Heero, but let my hand linger on his bare arm. ‘The fire department is coming.’

He came up next to us, frowning as he saw my board that looked slightly worse for wear, and then his gaze travelled to me, and he did a double take, looking back at the shed before looking at me again.

‘Duo?’ he asked, as though confused if it really was me, and I nodded.

‘The same.’ I said, and coughed as my throat itched.

‘What happened?’ he asked, looking towards the shed, and I frowned. Even if I told them about Mueller, would it really help with anything? I had no proof, and all it would achieve was the risk that any of my friends would try to deck the bastard. Mueller would bring everything then, and apparently he was ready to kill. It wasn’t worth it.

‘Not sure,’ I said slowly and silently, trying to spare my throat. ‘I went in to find the letter, then it was burning.’

‘Why did you even have anything in there?’ Heero asked, almost sounding angry, and I looked at him.

His eyes were narrowed, his brows creased with a small wrinkle between them. His lips were set in a thin line, and his jaw was clenched. There was no doubt. Now that he’d worked his way through the shock he was furious, and I felt as though I had to defend myself.

‘Because I lived there,’ I said, glaring right back at him, and his wrinkle became larger as his eyebrows drew closer together.

I began to cough again but tried my best to smother it.

‘Duo, what –‘

He didn’t get any further, because the sirens from the fire truck and ambulance became too loud for me to be able to hear him anyways.

The cars pulled up by the shed and there was a flurry of people and activity. Orders were shouted, hoses were pulled out, and then a spray of water was aimed at the ground around the building, before aiming at the side where the fire was the strongest.

Two persons in green clothes came up to us, and both Heero and I got poked and prodded. They looked in my throat, and gave me some oxygen, which helped with the cough. Heero said I hadn’t been more than a few minutes when they’d seen the smoke and ran up to the shed. It had felt like an hour.

The worst burn I’d gotten was on my foot that had apparently been a bit close to the fire, and while it had already blistered, it was a small second-degree burn, and they had rinsed it for me and left me with some ointment. They offered to take me to the hospital, but I declined and they left with an admonition for me to seek care if the coughing persisted or got worse.

The police had arrived while we were getting checked out and they got our statements before they talked to the captain of the fire department. They didn’t stick around for very long and pretty soon it was only the fire department and we.

The fire was quickly being doused by water and it was captivating as it tried to escape its death. The flames were fleeing and jumping to get away, but wherever it ended it couldn’t get a hold and it was soon gone. The shed was nothing but a drenched black mess of wood.

‘I called Trowa, he’ll pick us up,’ Wufei said silently to Heero, and I hung my head as I wondered where I’d go now. I rubbed on the blister on my foot, making it sting a bit more, but stopped when Heero touched my arm.

‘Don’t aggravate it,’ he said, and I thought he sounded worried, but he still had that clenched jaw, which got even tighter when he looked at me.

Trowa arrived within minutes, and I stopped by his window.

‘Could you drive me into town?’ I asked. He looked at me, then at Heero but finally he shrugged.

‘Sure, if you want. You look a bit… coaly though,’ he said, sniggering a bit to himself as I jumped into the back of the truck together with Wufei. It surprised me when Heero chose the front seat rather than joining Wufei and me in the back. All things considered, maybe it wasn’t too surprising. I’d messed up big time.

I took my shirt off when Trowa started the truck and drove off. Balling it up with the inside out, I used it to wipe my face and was awed at the amount of soot that had been transferred from my face to the shirt.

Trowa stopped the car by the Safe house, and Wufei and Heero got out. I jumped out as well, intending on sitting down in the passenger seat, but then Trowa also exited the truck and grabbed my board from the back.

‘Hey, Tro’,’ I said, and walked up to him. ‘How about town?’

‘Don’t be stupid,’ Heero said from the deck, sounding exasperated. ‘You’re staying here tonight.’

I scowled. He was probably trying to be kind. With his cool attitude and obvious anger it felt as though he didn’t trust me to take care of myself.

‘You’re asking, or you’re telling?’ I asked with a raised eyebrow, and his eyebrows creased.

‘It’s not like you have anywhere else to go,’ he said coldly, and I blinked. What the hell was this? I’d thought I’d seen enough of his angry face to last me a lifetime. It had been naïve of me to think I wouldn’t see it ever again.

‘Don’t worry about me, Yuy,’ I said, turned to Trowa to grab my board that he gave up readily, and walked away.

No one called for me, and I felt the heat blaze in my chest. My eyes were stinging and tears were threatening to fall. I blamed it on them being irritated from the fire, but I knew better. I’m not even sure why it affected me so much.

Everything was falling apart. I no longer had a place to sleep and to top it off, Heero was furious with me. That didn’t feel like the way it was supposed to go.

I wasn’t exactly expecting him to open his arms and home and kiss and make it all better, but… No, actually, I was expecting him to kiss and make it better. He was my boyfriend; it was a part of his job description. I didn’t even need him to say anything. I just wanted to feel his arms around me.

I turned the beach shower on after undressing to my underwear and stepped underneath it. The cool water hit my feverishly hot skin and I shivered violently. It poured over me, and I leaned my head backwards, closing my eyes, and let it hit me directly in my face. The chill from it was very welcome, and I just stood there, letting it flow over my body.

I’m not sure how long I stood there but when I leaned my head down and opened my eyes again my fingers were pruned. I moved them to untie my braid, hoping my hair had gone unscathed from the fire. It was a tangle, but I did manage to sift it through with my fingers. The water that flowed from it was black, and I let it rinse out until it became clear, and then I stayed for a while longer. I didn’t have anywhere to go anyways.

Maybe Heero had a right to be angry with me. I had intentionally hidden where I’d been living, even after we’d started going out. It must have indicated that I hadn’t trusted him. But I’d known he’d have tried to fix it, and I hated the feeling of not being able to look after myself. Because of my stupid insecurities, I was managing to alienate Heero, and I was scared that I’d gone too far.

I sighed.

I didn’t like the prospect of a future without Heero, I had fallen for him so hard that I couldn’t see myself without him anymore. I didn’t want to run away again.

I had to apologize.

The trek back to the Safe house was slow, as I was trying to go over what I would say when I saw Heero. I tried to create a script, and imagined what he would say in response. If he even wanted to see me.

He sat on the edge of the deck, and our eyes met. My heart started thundering in my chest, and I kind of wanted to run away. I think I may have taken a step back, because he stood up quickly, extending a hand slightly as though he could catch me, not caring about the distance between us.

‘I’m sorry,’ we both said at the same time, and a rock fell from my chest. I took a hesitant step forward. He walked to me with long steps and I dropped my board when he pulled me against him in a tight hug. The speech I’d been thinking about fled from my head as he buried his head against my neck.

‘Please, Duo. I’m asking you, stay here tonight?’

I nodded against his shoulder and felt him sag a little, making me draw back to look into his face. He looked relieved, and when our eyes met again, I was moved to push my lips against his and he responded hungrily. One of his hands wrapped in my hair and pressed me closer while his other moved over my back, and all my blood went travelling towards my groin. I pushed my own hands in under his shirt and felt with my fingers along his abdominal muscles. His excitement was growing to be just as pressing as mine.

‘Heero,’ I said under my breath against his lips and he moaned my name in a husky voice that made me shiver. Unfortunately, that seemed to bring him back to himself.

‘You’re freezing,’ he said and I shook my head, not ready to give up on this intoxicating feeling.

‘No,’ I said, and he let out a sexy noise that told me he didn’t believe me. ‘You’re warming me up just fine,’ I said and tried to capture his lips again, but he put a hand against my chest and smirked.

‘To bed, I think,’ he said, and I couldn’t disagree with him. I didn’t want to disagree.

He took my hand and led me into the house and to his room. He closed the door firmly behind us and looked at me with half-lidded eyes.

It became more real then, and I blushed hotly as his eyes traced over every inch of my body. It looked as though he appreciated what he saw. He drew his shirt over his head, his muscles rippling under his skin as he moved. He threw it away and I stepped in, kissing him soundly.

He pressed me down on the bed, placing himself above me, pushing one knee between mine until he could lay flush against me, and I threw my head back, gasping as I felt the new pressure.

‘’Ro,’ I breathed and he kissed my neck softly as his hand travelled to my briefs where he played with the waistline for a moment. I took his cue, and did the same, but I was a bit more impatient and soon had him completely naked. He smiled against me and nibbled softly on my skin as he started push my briefs away. I lifted my hips to help him, wishing to get rid of the unbearable pressure from my groin.

He pressed his knee a bit to the side, making me spread my legs and I could feel him throbbing against me. I held my breath, watching him as his fingers travelled under me, and I think I flinched a little. It made him hesitate, and look at me closely.

‘Ever done this before?’ he asked, head tilted ever so slightly and I shook my head. His eyes narrowed slightly. ‘Do you want to?’

I nodded, and he frowned as he leaned over me, taking care not to touch me.

‘Tell me, Duo. Do you want to? We can stop,’ he said, and I looked into his eyes. His deep, dangerous eyes that I had drowned in. He started to move back when I didn’t reply, and I caught him around the back of his neck.

‘I want this. Please,’ I said, and pulled him down to kiss me again.

He conjured lube and a condom from somewhere, and then we were moving together in a dance that would be over much too quickly. It was our first time together; my first time ever, and there wasn’t a lot of stamina involved. It was hot, and passionate, and much better than I ever could have expected.

Afterwards, Heero was tracing kisses over my collarbone, and I moved my hand slowly over his back. It had been great, but now that I was thinking more clearly again, I was wondering what had happened to his anger.

‘Hey, ‘Ro?’ I asked and he grunted tiredly. ‘This… this is real, isn’t it?’

He pushed himself up to his elbow to look at me with a serious expression.

‘Very real,’ he answered, and hesitated for a moment. ‘Do you regret it?’

‘No! I loved it,’ I said immediately and he tilted his head as I tried to figure out what to say. ‘You seemed so angry, earlier.’

He closed his eyes for a moment, sighing softly.

‘I was,’ he said and I swallowed tightly. ‘You ran back,’ he said, pressing on the last word, sounding as though he accused me. ‘For a _board_.’

It hadn’t been anywhere close to what I’d thought it was.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said, and I saw a pain in his eyes that moved me to pull him down so I could hold him tightly against me. I put my chin on top of his head.

‘I don’t understand why,’ he said, his tone begging for an explanation.

‘I’m so sorry,’ I said, wanting to cry for him as I thought of how he must have felt, watching me run back towards the fire.

‘But _why?_ ’ he asked again and I took a deep breath.

‘His board is all I have left of him,’ I answered, and I felt him stop breathing.

‘Gods, Duo,’ he said after a moment. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘We’re both sorry,’ I said, and smiled as he lifted himself up again. He gave me a soft smile as well before leaning down to kiss me.

‘Don’t you dare take this back,’ I said to him when we drew back, and he stared into my eyes again.

‘Never. Duo, I love you,’ he said and I felt my heart beat wildly.

‘I don’t think I’ll ever want to get back to the surface,’ I said, and he frowned in confusion, but then smiled in amusement.

‘I’ve got you, you’re not drowning,’ he said and warmth spread in my chest.

‘I love you, ‘Ro.’

This felt right.

He was wrong though. I was completely submerged.


	13. Closeout

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the delay. My horse wasn't feeling too hot yesterday and unfortunately there is no internet connection in the stable :)  
> Enjoy.

When I woke up my head was lying on Heero’s arm. My own arm was lying across his abs. I’ve never taken the proper time to appreciate a guy’s abs before. Heero’s abs are the sole definition of perfect. They are lean and when I trace my hand over them, I can feel the bumps as I would feel the swells in the water on a day with a small breeze.

‘Morning,’ Heero said, and moved his hand slightly to lie in the small of my back. I let my fingers continue to feather over his abs.

‘Hey,’ I said and kissed the top of his chest.

‘How do you feel?’ he asked and I had to think about it. I could still feel what we’d done the previous night, but I wasn’t sore, or hurt in any way.

‘Sated,’ I answered with a grin, and moved my hand up to his chest and over his shoulder where I could feel an abrasion. Heero hissed, and pulled his shoulder away slightly, making me sit up in the bed to try and get a good look at it.

It was a blister. Actually, there were three bigger blisters, covering his shoulder blade.

‘You got hurt?’ I asked, wondering why he hadn’t told me. Wondering why I hadn’t noticed the previous night. It wasn’t like he’d been trying to cover up. Then again, I could admit to having been quite distracted by other parts of his body.

‘It’s nothing,’ he mumbled even as he stretched his neck and moved his shoulder forwards to try and get a better look at the blisters.

‘You got it when you knocked in the door?’ I asked, feeling guilty.

‘I think so. It was burning,’ he said, as though it didn’t matter.

‘It was burning already?’ I shook my head. ‘Why didn’t you wait for the fire department?’ He looked into my eyes with raised eyebrows, as though he couldn’t believe I’d asked him that question.

‘You were in there,’ he told me anyways, and I brushed a kiss over his lips.

‘Thank you,’ I said and got out of the bed. He moved, about to join and I held my hands up to stop him. ‘Stay.’

‘Gladly,’ he answered with a yawn and settled his head back onto the pillow. I fished out a fresh pair of Heero’s underwear to get into.

‘You look sexy in my clothes,’ he said and I chuckled. I turned back to see a smirk on Heero’s face as he watched me intently.

‘I’ll be back in a moment,’ I said and went out in search for my backpack. I had to walk on the outside of my feet in order to avoid my own blisters.

Heero almost always placed my backpack on one of the kitchen chairs when he was the one to bring it inside. This time was no exception, and once I had it I padded back into Heero’s room with the backpack in hand.

He had rolled over onto his stomach and fallen back asleep in the short time that he was waiting for me. I pulled out the ointment that I’d gotten the previous day before placing my backpack on the floor.

His right shoulder was covered in blisters of various sizes and the skin surrounding the blisters was an angry red hue. I almost felt sick when I realized I’d touched his shoulder during our coupling the previous night and that his shudder then couldn’t have been due to pleasure. I couldn’t believe I’d hurt him.

I sat down on the bed with one leg bent underneath me, and the other on the edge of the bed as I spread a bit of the ointment onto my hands. I put my hands gently onto his shoulder to apply the salve. No matter how tender I was trying to be Heero still woke up from it with a small evasive jerk. The blisters were filled with fluid and had to be incredibly painful.

‘Sorry,’ I said, but kept spreading the ointment.

‘It’s fine,’ he answered and gritted his teeth as I continued my administrations. Once finished with the lotion I started to rub his back, moving from his buttocks to the uninjured parts of his shoulder, and onto his neck.

It pleased me to find that he shivered delightfully whenever I stroked my finger where the base of his head meets his neck. I feathered over it and watched him shudder.

‘Gods, Duo. That feels so good,’ he mumbled, and I kept it up, seating myself on the back of his thighs as I massaged his back.

After a while, I might have started to fall into a more erotic territory, and I leaned over him to kiss that spot on his neck. It broke him, and he turned swiftly under me. He almost unseated me but he caught me as he sat up and I settled back onto his thighs. He put his hands around my waist and I tilted my head down, as I was taller than him when sitting on his thighs. We kissed deeply, and I heard myself whimper against him, feeling a need begin to spark inside of me again.

Then a knock came on the door, and we broke off. I leaned my forehead against his uninjured shoulder and chuckled. I almost wanted to cry in frustration.

‘Go away,’ Heero called, and there was a loud laugh from Trowa outside of the door.

‘Breakfast when you’re ready. If you haven’t had it already,’ he called through the door and I laughed.

‘At least he knocked this time,’ I said and got off of Heero’s lap, feeling awkward about doing anything now that they all apparently knew what was going on. ‘What if they heard…’

‘They’ll live. Quatre and Trowa aren’t exactly silent. Neither are Wufei and Sally,’ Heero said flatly as he got off of his bed and went over to the closet, where he proceeded to search for something to wear.

‘Wufei and Sally? Really?’ I’d thought they were friends with a crush on each other, since I didn’t see her around too often, but if they were doing… nightly activities, obviously there was something more between them.

‘Really,’ he answered and held out a pair of shorts for me. ‘You don’t have any more, right? These are a bit too small for me.’

‘Thanks,’ I said, feeling a bit ashamed at accepting a handout from Heero but took them and tried them on.

Heero smiled widely when I looked back at him and he took a step forwards and gave me a small kiss.

‘I really like seeing you in my clothes,’ he said in a sultry voice and I chuckled. It could have lead to something more, but I was already self-conscious about the others in the house and I stepped away.

‘I have to go into town and buy some new ones though, and find somewhere to stay…’ Heero grabbed me from behind around my waist, making me stop talking. I leaned to the side a bit and tilted my head to be able to look at him.

‘Stay here,’ he said and kissed my neck. ‘I’ll buy a bigger bed.’

‘’Ro, I don’t want to intrude,’ I said and turned around in his arms. I didn’t want him to feel like he had to offer only because we’d had sex. I didn’t want him to feel that he needed to buy a bigger bed either, but I needed to take one issue at a time.

‘You’re not. I want you here,’ he assured and I leaned forward to kiss him deeply.

‘Thanks, ‘Ro,’ I said and he leaned in for another kiss before we went out to join the rest of the guys for breakfast.

‘You took your time,’ Trowa said when we came out, and I tried to avoid blushing. I doubted my efforts were successful.

‘Unfinished business,’ I answered to try and make him drop any jokes he might have had and he chuckled.

‘No details,’ Wufei said, raising his hands in avoidance and we all laughed.

We had our usual routing on Sunday mornings. It’s very simple really. Finish breakfast, and then head out to surf if the conditions were good. The conditions were great that day and the other three finished breakfast before Heero and I, but they were kind enough to wait. They said they waited since they thought we’d get preoccupied with other things otherwise, and I wondered if it was possible to turn permanently red.

After I’d brushed my teeth, I went out to collect my melted board that had been discarded in the sand the previous night. My heart stopped when I didn’t see it, and I looked around frantically.

‘What’s wrong?’ Quatre asked behind me.

‘My board, I forgot it here last night,’ I said and he smiled.

‘Trowa took it to the shop.’

‘Thanks, Q’,’ I said and went with hurried steps into the shop. I could hear Heero and Trowa talking in the back roon. I’d never been there before and knocked on the door, waiting for a reply before I opened it.

It was a shaping room, and they’d put my board on the bench. They were both looking at it critically, but I still felt hope flare inside of me.

‘Can you fix it?’ I asked and Heero looked at me with sad eyes. My heart dropped like a stone.

‘We’d have to remove a lot of the fiberglass. Possibly all of it.’ I think he caught my horrified look, because he went on to explain further. ‘Even where it doesn’t look like it’s affected, the structure can be weakened. And we don’t know what state the foam is in yet.’

I sighed, feeling the hope disappear. It seemed like I’d had my last surf with Solo.

‘Don’t spend your time with it. Thanks for thinking about it, though,’ I said, not missing the frown I got from Heero before I walked back into the front of the shop and looked over the surfboards they had on display.

Not a one of the boards spoke to me. They were too long, too short, too wide and generally wrong. I was being unreasonable, and all of them were probably great, but it wasn’t the same. It couldn’t be the same. I couldn’t just throw the board away and replace it with another.

I sighed and felt Heero’s arms wrap around me. I intertwined my fingers with his and leaned into his embrace.

‘You all right?’ he asked softly, leaning his chin on my shoulder, and I nodded.

‘Yeah. I think I’ll go into town though, I need to shop for some clothes.’

‘Duo… it’s Sunday,’ he said cautiously and I sighed.

‘So I’ll go for a walk,’ I said. He let me go and I turned around to face him. ‘I really am fine, ‘Ro. I just need some time to think.’

‘Do you… want company?’ he asked, looking into my eyes, but I think he knew I’d reject him. I smiled, trying to show him that it was fine.

‘No. Go surfing, I’ll come back in a few hours,’ I said and moved out of the shop. He followed me.

‘You sure?’ he asked as he locked the door.

‘Yeah.’

‘All right. See you in a few hours,’ he said and he went off to get his surfboard.

I walked off along the beach walk. I hadn’t been further west than the Surf, so I thought I’d finally head off and sit down to watch if the Rift was as unpredictable as everyone said.

The Rift is quite an odd place. It’s between two coral reefs, the one at the Surf and the one at Choker. From what I’d heard and read about it, it had a rock bottom. The combination of these three variables made the waves climb high, but closeouts were also common. The waves would break all the way through, making a lot of them unsurfable. But then there would be that one perfect wave. The one that broke at the edge and created a perfect barrel. The one that made it worth every wipeout.

It was unpredictable. The waves didn’t break at the same place every time, and the breaks that created surfable barrels were minutes apart. The Rift Wars had never been held before, and I understood why. I understood why it wouldn’t be a part of the official contest, because it wasn’t enough with one surfable wave every five to ten minutes. The contest had nothing to do with winning, and all to do with bragging rights.

I had wanted to surf it with Solo. When he had died, I had brought his board, hoping to be able to bring his spirit, and in a sense, still surf it together.

Now I had nothing left.

It had been Solo’s dream to begin with; I had been dragged along for the ride. Actually, I hadn’t been dragged; I had followed behind him quite willingly, and had even pulled occasionally.

A bark pulled me out of my reverie and I turned towards the noise to see Zero run towards me. He slid to a stop in the sand and put his nose in my lap, begging for me to pet him. I buried my fingers in his fur and scratched.

I’d seen Heero behind the dog, but chose to ignore him until he was standing right next to me and I had no idea what I was going to say to him. My head was still in disarray.

He didn’t say anything either and simply sat down behind me. His legs appeared on both sides of mine, making Zero move back a little. Heero scooted as close as he could, until I felt his warmth against my back. He wrapped his arms around my chest and I leaned into his embrace. I let my hand continue scratching distractedly behind Zero’s ears.

The only sound that was made was Zero’s panting breaths and the crashing of the waves from the ocean. The ocean was rippling with huge waves, and they crashed onto the rocks with a massive thunder. It would be dangerous to catch a wave that broke too close to the beach. If you fell, you would end up on the rocks.

‘What are you thinking about?’ Heero asked softly after a while, and I hesitated.

‘Pros, surfing, water, dreams, death, Solo. Take your pick,’ I said and chuckled darkly as he kept quiet. He only squeezed gently with his arms.

‘He got me into surfing, you know. He kind of adopted me as a brother when I was ten, and he taught me everything.’

‘You started when you were ten?’ he asked in apparent surprise, and I laughed.

‘Not the point, ‘Ro. But yeah. Solo caught me when I was hanging around the beach, stealing food.’ Heero loosened his grip slightly and I knew he was shocked. I probably shouldn’t have told him quite like that. ‘I was homeless, ‘Ro. I kind of took the food wherever I could get it.’ He tightened his arms around me again.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, sounding contrite, and I shook my head. It wasn’t his fault I hadn’t told him yet, and I knew he was quite a stickler for the law. I was more surprised that he hadn’t asked why social services hadn’t taken me in.

‘Solo was fifteen, and old enough to have some jobs. He had some money, and let me live with him. His highest dream, the one he would never give up on, was to become a pro. He met G after a competition, and he was signed. Then I was signed when I was fifteen, because I hated when Solo went travelling without me,’ I said and laughed darkly. It had been the only reason. I didn’t care for the photo-shoots, or press conferences. But I loved the surfing. I loved travelling with Solo. ‘It was his dream. This…’ I made a gesture to encompass the ocean. ‘It was all his dream. Surfing the Rift someday was his goal. When he died, I wanted to fulfill it with his board.’ When Rift Wars was announced I’d known it was the perfect time. I bit my lip, feeling the pain in my chest from having disappointed Solo.

‘You won’t surf it?’

‘I don’t know. He’s not with me anymore,’ I said and shrugged with the shoulder he wasn’t leaning his chin on. ‘I don’t know what I want anymore. Should I even continue as a pro?’ I was merely musing, and didn’t expect an answer.

‘You need to find that out for yourself, Duo,’ he said anyways. ‘I’ll support you.’

‘Even though you hate pro surfers?’ I asked, trying for a light tone. He sighed and drew back a little, making me frown and wonder what I’d said wrong.

‘I don’t hate them. Especially not you,’ he said teasingly, but let out a small breath, telling me he wasn’t quite up for it. ‘My parents died when I was eight,’ he said and I took a hold of the arm that was over my chest, wanting to hold him, but not able to turn around in his embrace. ‘They went out to surf at any chance they got. The first year Gundams was held a bunch of pros came to the island. They thought themselves better than everyone, just because they had some sponsors. My dad didn’t stand for it, and they got into a fight, ending up with a contest right here at the Rift.’

He went silent, and I hugged his arms tightly as he leaned his forehead against my shoulder.

‘It was crazy,’ he said and shivered. ‘My parents had surfed here their entire lives. They knew the waves inside and out, and they won easily. The pros were upset at having been shown up so extremely but they left. That night, I woke up and the house was in flames.’

‘No,’ I breathed involuntarily, and I struggled to get out of his arms, needing to hold him. He let me go, and I turned around, putting my legs over his and wrapped them behind his back. I hugged him close with my arms, ensconcing him completely but was still careful not to touch his blisters.

‘I’m so sorry,’ I said. Sorry about his parents. Sorry about the memories that had surely been dredged up by the fire the previous day.

The memory from the fire was still vivid in my mind. How the orange flames had gotten closer, and how the noise from the burning wood had made everything else disappear.

The fear.

If I felt like that, I wondered how it would have been for an eight-year-old. And to lose his parents to it, I couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of pain he was going through. Had been going through since he was so young.

‘The fire started in their bedroom. They didn’t smoke, but the fire chief had found a cigarette butt outside. They never found who did it, but they were sure it was arson.’

I was even happier now that I’d never told him Mueller had set the fire to the shed. With such a history, I could only imagine what Heero would have done if he’d known.

‘It was the pros?’

‘I always thought it was one of them,’ he said and sighed. ‘I realize it was the act of one deranged person. That it had nothing to do with his being a pro or not. But the entire deal, the arrogance and feigned superiority most pros seem to have, it reminds me of what happened, and I don’t like them.’

‘I understand,’ I told him, gently rubbing his back. ‘Who… who did you live with? Afterwards?’

He tensed and didn’t speak for so long I thought he wouldn’t tell me. But then he sighed.

‘My uncle owned the Safe house. I moved in with him and his daughter.’ His last line had an air of finality to it and I didn’t ask anything more. His uncle was obviously gone since Heero had inherited the Safe house. Then his niece would have been gone as well, or it would have gone to her.

I held on to Heero, moving my hands slowly, trying to comfort him.

Zero pressed his head between us and started to lick our faces, making us let go of each other with a laugh.

‘I think he’s angry that he hasn’t gotten dinner yet,’ Heero said with a smile towards his dog.

‘Dinner? What about lunch?’ I asked, feeling my stomach grumble slightly, and Heero looked at me with a raised eyebrow. The somber mood was blown away.

‘Duo, you were away for five hours. Now, we’ve probably been here for a few more,’ he said, looking up towards the sun. ‘Lunch is long gone. We didn’t wait for you.’

‘Oh, man,’ I groaned, and he laughed at me.

‘Let’s go,’ he said, snaked his legs out from under mine and reached his hand down.

I took it and got up.

Zero ran off in front of us, stopped and came back to run a lap around us, before running off again. We started to walk back, our hands still locked together, and I took one last look at the raving seas.

Whose dream was I chasing anyways?


	14. Rip

When the next qualifier came around I still hadn’t touched a surfboard. They guys had done their best to convince me but their efforts fell short. I needed to wrap my head around it all. Nothing quite held up to the board I’d had. Which was stupid and utterly sentimental.

When I’d been out on the road with Solo, we’d had four different boards each. It’s hardly possible to put all your chances on a single board. They get dinged and can break so to only have one when on the pro circuit is a breath away from stupid. The board that was now destroyed had always been Solo’s favorite. After his death, it had become my link to him. The feeling of still surfing with him had been what had brought me back to the waves.

On the day of the qualifier the waves were great for surfing, if you were anyone other than Wufei. They were pitching in at around eight feet, peaked around ten, and exactly the type of waves Wufei hated.

He was looking over the waters with distaste clear in his eyes, which I found endlessly amusing.

‘Stop it,’ I said to him and he turned the glare at me instead. ‘Don’t hate the waves, ‘Fei. It won’t do you any favors.’

‘I don’t hate them,’ he said but his voice and the anger in his face sure could have fooled me.

‘Then stop trying to make them grow bigger through glaring at them,’ I said and laughed when he looked at me with a self-deprecating, quirked smile.

‘Am I that obvious?’ he asked and I shrugged.

‘Kind of,’ I said, and he let out a long sigh. ‘Don’t worry, ‘Fei. You’ve been doing great since you started working with Q’.’

‘That’s why I have to get a good score.’

‘So you won’t disappoint Quatre?’ I asked in amazement and he nodded but kept his gaze locked on his board, avoiding looking at me. ‘You’ve known him for far longer than I, and even I know he doesn’t care about that.’

‘It would be rude to perform at anything other than my best,’ he said, barely loud enough for me to hear it.

‘Are you planning to?’

‘What?’ he said, affronted, and finally looked at me. ‘Of course not!’

‘Then it doesn’t matter what score you get. You’ll be doing your best,’ I said and he narrowed his eyes as he looked at me, but didn’t say anything else.

He turned to watch the waves again, and so did I. The qualifiers today was at Choker, the same place as Gundams would happen. Typically, the waves here broke right, as opposed to the Surf where it was more common to have them break left. It wouldn’t matter once he was riding the wave, but he did have more trouble dropping in on the waves when facing away from it.

‘I’ll go check in,’ Wufei said and got to his feet.

‘Rip it, ‘Fei,’ I said with a wide grin and he gave me a small smile, before walking off towards the check in area.

A few minutes later, he paddled out in a yellow shirt together with two more that I didn’t know. I narrowed my eyes and looked closer when I thought I recognized one of the surfers.

‘Hey,’ Quatre said from my side. Zero got to his feet on my other side to go over and greet the new arrival before he came back and laid down, putting his head on my thigh.

‘Hey, Q’. Is that Mueller in blue out there?’ I asked with a nod towards the paddling surfers.

He shielded his eyes from the sun and so he could see, but lifted his shoulders in a shrug.

‘I can’t tell,’ he said. ‘I thought he was in lock-up,’ he said contemplatively, referring to the incident at the shop.

‘I think he got community service,’ I said with a shrug of my shoulders. That part didn’t matter too much to me. As long as he wouldn’t try to ruin anything for Wufei it didn’t matter.

‘That’s all?’

‘Yeah, it wasn’t too much anyways. He just broke a few bottles of bear, which he had to pay for.’

‘And tried to break your leg,’ he said, looking at me in wonder.

‘Yeah, and that,’ I said, grinning widely.

Ten minutes into the heat, Wufei had been falling more than I’d ever seen him do before. He caught too much air, or he pushed too hard, but whatever he tried to do to correct it he still didn’t catch those waves- It was easy to tell that he was getting frustrated.

‘We should have practiced those rights,’ Quatre mumbled, sounding regretful.

‘You kind of do keep to the Surf,’ I said, keeping a light tone, not wanting him to think I was reprimanding him about it.

‘It’s our beach,’ he answered simply, as though it was obvious, and I frowned. I’d heard him call it their beach once before but hadn’t paid it a lot of thought.

‘Yours?’

‘Yeah. It’s a private beach, you never saw the signs?’

‘No,’ I said, trying to recall any signs, but then Quatre laughed and I shoved at him playfully when I realized he was pulling my chain. Zero lifted his head and gave a loud bark at us before he was satisfied that we weren’t arguing. He settled his head back onto my thigh.

‘Everyone around here knows, but Heero doesn’t really care. Though he does occasionally exercise the right to kick people off.’

‘Like Alex and Mueller?’

‘When they’re being asses, yes,’ Quatre said with a chuckle.

‘Aren’t they always?’ I asked in mock surprise and Quatre laughed.

Quatre’s eyes fixed on Wufei who had just caught a wave. It was little more than a decent catch but considering it was the first right he’d caught, it was great. His ride was awesome and he finished with jumping up over the lip. We cheered loudly for him, making Zero lift his head and watch me accusingly. I scratched his ear and he panted happily again.

‘He just needs one more like that,’ Quatre said, and I silently agreed. The other two in the heat hadn’t been awful, and not great either. They had caught more waves however and had a higher score than him.

There were two minutes left of the heat with Wufei still only having caught one wave properly. Quatre was chewing on his fingernails. Everything was pointing towards Wufei getting eliminated.

‘Chill, Q’,’ I told him, and he glared at me, making me widen my eyes in surprise. Quatre had never glared at me before. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen him glare at anyone before.

‘Sorry, Duo,’ Quatre said softly and I laughed.

Then Wufei got a left and Quatre whooped as Wufei popped up easily, and nailed the moves.

‘He’s so going to the next round!’ Quatre said excitedly and got to his feet. He ran off to greet Wufei as he paddled in.

I stayed in my spot since I didn’t want to wake Zero who had fallen asleep in my lap. Besides, the beach was full with everyone watching the competition and I didn’t want to lose the great place we had managed to get.

I looked out over the ocean again and my eyes gravitated towards the jet skis. Or rather, they gravitated towards one of the riders. I scoured the water until my eyes settled on Heero. He was vigilantly watching the surfers, not intending to miss a single one that might need his help.

‘Reaper,’ was said from behind me, and I grinned widely as I turned.

‘Hey, Trant. What’s up?’

When I saw him, my smile slipped. He had a frown on his face and his jaw was clenched tightly. I got to my feet, displacing Zero from my lap. He shook himself as he also stood up next to me.

‘What’s wrong, buddy?’ I asked, stepping closer to him to put a hand on his shoulder, but he flinched away from my touch. I let my hand drop.

‘You. You are,’ he said and I frowned.

‘What?’

‘You’re gay,’ he said with disgust in his voice, and I froze. He said it with such hatred that you might as well think I had committed murder. Solo had been right all along. He’d always told me not to tell anyone.

‘I am,’ I said, because I don’t lie.

It wasn’t a secret but I’d never gone out of my way to tell anyone either, especially not as a pro. Solo had constantly cautioned me about telling anyone, as it’s not such a widely accepted orientation in the surfing world. He had known about my preferences, and G had known. G always said that it’s all about the surfing anyways, but he didn’t know how rough it could be between the surfers among the waves. How much testosterone is pumping when there’s a battle of the waves, and how scared some people are to have their masculinity thrown back in their faces. A lot of men get upset if a woman is better at surfing than them, but luckily they don’t do anything against them. A gay man is fair game.

‘I should have known,’ Trant sneered. ‘Brother from another mother, like hell.’

I clenched my fist and Zero’s lips lifted to show his teeth as he looked at Trant, and a growl emanated from his throat.

‘Solo’s my brother, nothing more!’

‘Was,’ he said coldly, and I exhaled sharply in surprise. ‘Did he know then?’

‘He knew.’

‘So you just lied to me?’

‘I never lied! You never asked.’

‘Fucking fag,’ he said, and I was close to stepping up and clocking the guy. Zero’s growl became louder. He had lowered his head, and was looking intently at Trant, with his teeth showing completely. It made me come to my own senses and I put a restraining hand on Zero’s collar. I didn’t think he’d attack the guy, but I wanted to be safe.

‘You won’t lie to anyone else. I’ll tell everyone. I’ll give it to Surf’d,’ Trant said, almost sounding as though there was anything I could do to convince him otherwise. ‘You’ll be done.’

I felt something grip my heart and squeeze it tightly, as though wringing out a rag. Did I care?

‘Since I’m not really surfing right now anyways, I don’t see how that will be a huge loss,’ I told him despite my feelings, and his face dropped further.

‘If you go public, I will bring you down,’ Quatre said in an angry voice behind me. Zero growled louder again and pulled against my hold.

Trant backed up to get away from the dog’s teeth, but looked at Quatre in defiance.

‘There’s nothing you can do,’ he said. ‘There’s free speech.’

‘All you have is rumors, who will believe you?’ Quatre said.

‘He just admitted to it!’

‘And again, who will believe you?’ Quatre asked, his icy blue eyes narrowed and staring down the taller man. If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it to be possible for Quatre to ever be able to stare down a guy five inches taller than himself.

But he did, and Trant turned around with a sneer. Zero looked back at me and gave a hesitant wag of his tail, as though asking if he’d done good. I petted him and scratched that spot behind his ear that he loves so much, and his tongue was soon lolling out of his mouth again.

‘Dishonorable cur,’ Wufei said, looking after the retreating man, and I laughed. A little loud maybe, because both of them looked at me in shock.

‘Surf’d wouldn’t let him run it without proof,’ I said. ‘It’s not really a gossiping magazine either way,’

I couldn’t let go of that feeling that I’d cared when he’d said I’d be done. I’d been afraid that this was it. That it would be the final nail in the coffin of my short career as a surfer.

It didn’t make any sense. I’d already given up on it, hadn’t I?

What hurt the most was that Trant had been a good friend. The three of us had had a lot of fun together. But I had never even considered telling the guy about my orientation. It had never come up and with Solo’s constant cautioning it was never at the front of my mind. I wasn’t sure it would have been better if he’d found out earlier.

There was no use dwelling on it, but it was hard to focus on the competition after the whole ordeal.

Wufei was luckier during his next few heats, and caught a few lefts. In the semi-finals, he waited until the very end, avoiding any rights that came his way, and grabbed the single left.

‘You’re a coward,’ I told him when he came back in. He narrowed his eyes and stared down at me. ‘You’ll never catch a wave without trying.’

‘Who are you to speak?’ he sneered, and I all but flinched at the words. I wasn’t trying.

‘I’m not trying to win a contest,’ I answered coldly, and he lost his angry look, and just looked sad.

‘Maybe not,’ he said. ‘But you’re losing either way.’

He left, muttering something about needing some water before the finals, and I didn’t say anything.

‘Duo…’ Quatre said and put a hand on my shoulder.

‘It’s fine, Q’. I was an ass,’ I said and Quatre laughed a little uncomfortably.

‘You kind of were,’ he agreed, and I snorted.

‘Fei’ll be great once he gets a hang of the rights. But if you don’t dare to get in them, you’ll never learn.’

‘Are you listening to yourself?’ Quatre asked in mild amusement and I frowned.

If I don’t dare to get in. But I couldn’t do it. Though the waves were pulling at me, calling for me, all I knew was that Solo wouldn’t be there with me. Could I learn to surf without him?

I wasn’t so sure.

In the finals, Wufei was still waiting, sitting still on his board even as his opponent caught the best waves. There were no lefts, and his time was running out.

‘He won’t get any,’ Quatre said softly besides me and I shook my head, agreeing with him. The next wave was going to be a right as well, and it was pretty much his last chance before the siren would call, announcing the end of the heat and Wufei’s loss.

He paddled for it, and both Quatre and I got to our feet. Zero didn’t seem to mind having gotten pushed off, because he was barking loudly right beside us.

‘Go!’ both Quatre and I shouted loudly, even though there was no chance of Wufei hearing us. He didn’t need us.

It was perfect, and Quatre took a hold of my arm, squeezing tightly, as the wave started to barrel Wufei in. He squatted low to get in it and raised one hand to paint a streak in the water falling next to him.

‘Yes!’ Quatre shouted and I found myself holding my breath. ‘He’s got it!’

The wave started to close up, and Wufei leaned in slightly, and pulled out with the spit.

I jumped into the air, reaching my fist towards the heavens, and Quatre jumped right beside me. Zero started running in circles around us, and I laughed before sitting down on my knees and hugging the dog close.

When Wufei came up he looked me directly in the eyes.

‘Your turn,’ he said, and went off to get his second place trophy.

My turn to prove I wasn’t a coward. My turn to get back to catching the waves. The pull was there, the need to find the perfect wave. But how could I?

Zero gave a loud bark, pulling me out of my thoughts. He’d gone up to Quatre and was whining in distress as he pressed his head against Quatre’s hanging hand. I frowned as I looked at him. His phone was in a slack grip by his ear, his mouth was hanging slightly open, and his eyes were shining suspiciously.

‘Quat’?’ I asked softly and he turned to me, his face pale.

‘My father had a heart attack. He’s at the hospital,’ he said and I felt my heart drop at his obvious pain.

‘We’ll go. I’ll drive you,’ I said and he nodded.

I wrapped my arm around his shoulders, in an attempt to show him my support, and he leaned into me a little as we walked up towards the road. It was a slow progress; Quatre was obviously shocked, and I wished I had a blanket to wrap him in. Or Trowa.

‘Q’, lend me your phone for a bit, I’ll call Tro’ and tell him where we’re going.’

He nodded once and distractedly handed me the phone that he had still had in his hand. I pressed the short key for calling Trowa and lifted the phone to my ear, listening to it ring.

I almost gave up, but just as I was about to hit the key for ending the call, Trowa answered on the other end.

‘Where are you, babe?’ he asked and I grinned. I hadn’t heard them call each other with a lot of nicknames.

‘Hi Tro’,’ I said. ‘Q’s dad has been taken to the hospital. We’re taking the car to go there.’

‘I’ll come,’ he answered quickly. ‘I’ll tell Heero and Wufei. I’ll be by the car in two minutes.’

‘Great, see ya,’ I said and hung up.

Quatre was staring straight ahead, but I doubted he could see anything at all. It looked like he was far away, thinking about something I couldn’t begin to guess about.

Trowa hadn’t been lying when he’d said two minutes. He was out of breath, but as soon as he came close enough he had Quatre gathered in his arms. Quatre almost fell then, and it looked like Trowa’s grip was all that held him up.

‘Zee, go to Heero,’ I told the dog, feeling a bit guilty about that, but the hospital was no place for a dog, and there was no saying how long we were going to be there for. Zero wagged his tail once before he turned around and shot off towards where I assumed Heero was. Smart dog.

‘Let’s go,’ Trowa said, and I opened the passenger door for them and Trowa helped Quatre get in.

I closed the door behind them and ran around to the driver’s seat and we were off.

Quatre sat in Trowa’s lap, and Trowa was whispering words of comfort to his boyfriend. I tried not to listen, and merely focus on the road, but with only the three of us in the small cab of the truck, it was impossible not to hear. I saw a very different side of Trowa during the ride to the hospital. I’ve always known how much he loves Quatre, but they hide their relationship from the public. In the Safe house, they are more open, but here… here they were gorgeous. Trowa was gently talking Quatre back to reality, and once we got to the hospital, he seemed a bit more like himself again.

‘I’m here to see Zayeed Winner,’ he told the woman at the reception. She didn’t even glance up at him.

‘Relation and ID.’

‘I’m his son,’ Quatre said, and handed her his driver’s license. She typed something into the computer before giving the license back and then she finally looked up. Not at us however, but down the corridor, and she lifted a hand to point.

‘He’s in surgery, you can sit down in the waiting room, it’s to the right over there.’

‘Thank you,’ Quatre said.

We sat down in the waiting room, and I was worried. More for Quatre’s sake than for his father. Because even though they were at odds with each other, it was obvious Quatre loved his father. He’d craved for his father to love him back since he was a kid. Is it possible for a parent not to love their child? Maybe it is, but I didn’t think that was the case here. Zayeed had, in a twisted way, appeared to care about Quatre.

‘Iria,’ Quatre said and I looked up to see a woman walk up to him. I recognized her name from when Quatre had been talking about his work and realized this was his older sister. They wrapped their arms tightly around one another before both of them sat down again, their hands wrapped together.

‘Duo, Trowa, I’m sorry for making you worry. Please go home, we’ll probably be here for a while,’ Quatre said and I raised an eyebrow.

‘I’m not going anywhere,’ Trowa said simply.

I nodded. ‘Yeah. I’m staying.’

Quatre smiled gratefully towards us and Trowa claimed his free hand.

It was more than an hour before a doctor came out through the door, and I saw it in her face. She looked exhausted, and when her eyes were about to meet ours, she looked down on the floor quickly before looking back up. He was dead.

‘Family of Zayeed Winner?’ she asked. Iria and Quatre stood up and walked up to the doctor. She made a motion for them to sit down, but they both shook their heads.

‘Go to them, man. He’s gone,’ I said, and got a sharp look from Trowa under his bangs before he also stood up. He hung back until the doctor told them.

Iria took a sharp intake of breath, before backing up two steps and sitting down heavily in the chair. She leaned her forehead in her hands, and bent double.

Quatre went into that staring mode again. He didn’t move, he didn’t say anything, he only stared into the wall. Trowa took him in his arms then and moved them back to the chairs.

Iria had no one with her, and she looked as devastated as Quatre. I was moved to go to her and I slowly sat down on the chair next to her. I gave her plenty of time to refuse me to do so and put my hand on her shoulder.

She hitched a sob and looked at me with tears in her eyes before she buried her head against my chest. I wrapped my arms around her, and held tightly as she cried. It should have been uncomfortable to have a complete stranger cry on me, but all I could feel was sympathy. It wasn’t such a long stretch for me to imagine what it felt like to lose a family member after all.

As soon as she started to squirm, showing signs of becoming uncomfortable, I let her go, and she sat up straight. Her eyes were red from the crying, it stood out in her pale face, but she had collected herself. She gave me a smile, mouthing a thanks, before she took a deep breath and stood up to go to her brother.

Quatre had leaned his head against Trowa’s shoulder, and Trowa was holding him close. Protecting him. Iria hunched down in front of Quatre, and put her hand on his knee. Trowa never let him go, and Quatre didn’t appear like he was trying to get loose either.

‘Quatre, let’s go home for today. We’ll deal with everything tomorrow,’ she said, trying to catch his eyes, get him to focus, but he still didn’t quite look like he was there. She turned her eyes to Trowa instead. ‘Trowa, please?’

Trowa nodded and helped Quatre to his feet and helped him walk out. I got up after them and hesitated when I noticed Iria hadn’t moved.

‘Ms Winner, do you need a ride?’ I asked, turning to her, but she smiled.

‘Thank you for the offer, it isn’t necessary,’ she said and I nodded.

‘See you around then.’

‘Surely, Mr. Maxwell,’ she said, and I wondered if I’d given her my name until I realized Quatre had probably talked to her about me previously.

It was a very silent ride back to the Safe house. Trowa isn’t much of a talker, but Quatre and I can normally manage well enough. With Quatre silent, it made the air so much heavier, and I was incredibly worried. There was something going on with him that I didn’t understand. I could only hope that Trowa did understand, and that he could help.

I pulled up in front of the house and got out to open the door for Trowa and Quatre.

‘I don’t… I can’t…’ Quatre whispered softly, but obviously distressed, and Trowa stroked him over his head.

‘It’s all right, Quatre. You don’t have to talk to anyone,’ he said, and looked pointedly at me. I nodded, understanding what he was saying, and left them alone. I went around the house on the deck to find Heero and Wufei standing just around the corner.

‘Eavesdrop much?’ I asked with a small smile, and both of them looked away. ‘His dad died, but I think he’ll want to tell you when he’s ready.’

‘Damn,’ Wufei said and sighed, and I looked at him in surprise. He wasn’t usually much of a swearer.

‘Yeah,’ I said, agreeing. ‘Quat’s not really up to talking right now, I guess they’ll just go into their bedroom.’

‘We’ll stay out here for a bit then,’ Heero said and wrapped his own arms around my shoulders.

I didn’t mean to, but I tensed up, and Heero let me go.

‘Duo?’

‘Sorry, ‘Ro,’ I said, shaking my head to get rid of the memory of Trant’s words from earlier.

‘Now who’s the coward?’ Wufei asked, looking at me intently before he turned around and walked to the back of the house. Could he read me so easily?

‘Wu…’ Heero started, but I put my hand on his mouth to silence him, and he frowned. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Trant told me he’d found out I was gay today. He wasn’t… happy,’ I said, and Heero sighed. He was fully aware of the stigma associated with being gay in the surfing world. We’d spoken about it a few times, and we’d decided not to hide our relationship, but we didn’t exactly flaunt it to the world either. I retold our entire conversation.

‘He can’t print anything,’ Heero said, and I nodded.

‘I know,’ I said. ‘But with proof he could.’

‘And… what? You think he’s hiding behind the palms with a camera?’ he asked, looking out towards the trees with a mock glare, making me laugh. He took a hold of my hand, gently rubbing his thumb over the top of it.

‘No,’ I said. ‘But I wouldn’t put it passed him. He was really angry.’

Heero smiled and pulled me into his embrace. I accepted it readily this time, and put my own hands on his back, trying to push us closer. Thoughts were running around in my head after everything that had happened during the day. I thought about Quatre and his father. About Wufei’s second place that I still hadn’t congratulated him for. And the question that I kept coming back to.

Why had it hurt so much when Trant had said I’d be done?


	15. Shaping

Heero woke me up before sunrise the day after Wufei’s spectacular second place. I hadn’t woken up that early since my board was broken almost a month previously. He led me by the hand out onto the deck where a black surfboard was leaning against the railing. I sighed. I could see where this was going. He had only given me my trunks to get dressed in, and that combined with the placement of the surfboard made me pause.

‘Heero?’

‘I just want to show it to you,’ he said with an excited smile on his face, and I couldn’t not go with him when he looked like that.

It was a near perfect replica of Solo’s board, and I ran my hand over its smooth rails. I lifted it, and felt it balance nicely over my arms. It was an amazing piece of work, but I sighed as I placed it down. He must have spent every free moment working on it, ever since the fire.

‘It’s perfect, ‘Ro.’

‘It’s yours, if you want it,’ he said, and I nodded, having pretty much expected it.

‘I can’t,’ I said, and turned around to go back in, when he put a hand on my shoulder and turned me back to face him. His eyes were smoldering, and I almost backed away. I felt guilty, denying such a great gift.

‘You love surfing. Why won’t you just admit that you want to be out there?’ he asked, gesturing with his arm towards the ocean.

‘I’m not sure I love it _enough_ ,’ I said. ‘How can I take Solo’s dream away from him?’

‘You wouldn’t take it away, Duo. Even without his board, he’s with you. He’s here,’ he said and put his hand against my chest, over my heart.

He took a step to stand beside me and pushed my braid over my shoulder before he reached his hands around my neck and revealed a necklace in front of me.

I lifted my hand to get a closer look at the hanging piece of jewelry, and was amazed to see Solo’s signature on it. My chest clenched as I realized it was a piece of his board and my hand dropped. Heero clasped the necklace shut, and turned me around to face him.

‘He’s always with you, Duo. This is just a reminder,’ he said and I felt an incessant sting in my eyes. I stared up at the sky, trying to stop tears from falling.

I’d never surf with Solo again.

Never see his smile.

He was really gone.

I’d never cried for him… for myself before or after that moment. But at that moment, the tears were falling unhindered from my eyes. Heero put one hand on the back of my head, and the other on my back, and held me tightly as I cried against his shoulder. I cried for the loss of my best friend for the very first time. Heero gently sat us down in a chair and rocked us back and forth. He whispered into my ear, telling me to let it out, to grieve. He never told be everything would be fine, but he told me I’d heal, and I believed him.

When the tears ran out, I stayed on Heero’s lap, leaning against him. I didn’t know what to say. I was embarrassed about my breakdown, but he didn’t seem to mind. His fingers played with the end of my braid and I took a hold of his other hand. The sun was starting to rise and we watched it in silence.

The clouds were painted in red, turning almost purple a bit higher up, and it reflected in the clear water. There was a streak of orange in the middle, where the sun was coming up. The waves licked the shores, and I felt the longing surge up in me. My hand travelled to the necklace without me being fully aware of it and I grasped the drop-shaped piece of board tightly. Solo wouldn’t have wanted me to mope around. He would have laughed at me, and said I was being a fool. He would have told me I had been the one who dragged him out to surf even when the rain was pouring. That I was always the one who stayed the longest.

Maybe surfing was my dream too.

I took a deep breath and got up from Heero’s lap. I rubbed at my eyes to get rid of that gritty feeling you get after crying too much before I turned back to Heero and gave him a wide grin.

‘Wanna hit the waves?’ I asked, and he let out a soft, amused sound, accompanied by a gentle smile.

‘Always,’ he answered.

He fetched his board from around the corner, making me laugh loudly and he gave me an apologetic smile.

‘I hoped you’d want to go,’ he said.

I put my hand behind his head and pulled him in for a kiss before I let him go and ran off towards the ocean. He followed closely behind me.

The bliss of being back in the water was stunning. The water wrapped around me as I went in. It hugged me tight and I dragged my fingers in the water, feeling it curl around them.

I put the board down, lay down on top of it and paddled out towards the break zone. Heero was right behind me, close enough that I would be able to touch his board if I reached out a little with my leg, and I laughed softly at him.

‘I haven’t forgotten how to surf in one month, ‘Ro,’ I told him, and stopped paddling, sitting up on my board.

‘I’ll believe it when I see it,’ he said teasingly. I cupped my hand underneath the water and lifted it quickly, making it splash in his face.

He recoiled and lost his balance on the board, flipping over, making me laugh hard. He swam under the water, and I pushed his board away a bit as it looked as though he was going to come up right beneath it.

Then he pushed against my board. I couldn’t lean over quick enough so I soon found myself under the water as well. I emerged, shaking my head to get the hair out of my eyes, and looked around for Heero. He was at the other side of my board, laughing exuberantly, and I grinned. It was my favorite sound.

‘Asshole,’ I said with a teasing mutter.

‘I haven’t heard that for a couple of months,’ he said, still laughing softly.

‘You’ve been behaving,’ I said with a grin, and turned my board back before getting onto it again.

Heero got onto his own board as well and gave a push to put us next to each other. We leaned in to brush our lips together before the first wave came in.

‘Mind if I grab this one?’ I asked, my eyes fixed on the wave and he snickered deeply.

‘It’s all yours,’ he said.

I turned, and paddled with it until I felt it grab onto my board. I pushed myself up and shifted my weight, allowing me to slide down the wave and into the trough. The wind grabbed my hair and I my braid slapped at my back as I leaned down. I pushed my hand into the wave to stall and allow the wave to barrel around me. There was a wide grin on my face even as I focused on where the wave was going to close out. It was a small tube, and I had to hunch down low to not get caught by the water, but it’s the most incredible thing in the world. It’s like I can bend water, like nothing can touch me while I’m in the tube. I exited with the spit of the wave as it closed out. I gave a happy shout as I jumped off the board into the water.

Heero was on the next wave and I paddled back a bit to not be in his way and still be able to watch him as he rode it. He held his arm stretched out in front of him and he turned his board through the breaking lip and lifted into the air. I felt myself hold my breath until he landed it neatly and sat down on the board.

I paddled up to him with a huge smile on my face, and he returned it in kind before we paddled back out.

‘It’s a great board, ‘Ro,’ I said once we’d stopped to wait for the next wave again, and he nodded.

‘I’m glad you like it.’

‘I love it!’ I said, and he raised an eyebrow.

‘Almost as much as me?’

‘More,’ I told him teasingly, and chuckled as he kicked up water in my face. ‘It’s a close second.’

‘Good, or I’d have to break it,’ he said, sounding serious.

‘Don’t you dare, Heero,’ I said and he laughed. ‘Besides, you love Zee,’ I said, trying for a petulant tone, but it came out sounding kind of lame. Heero laughed at me.

‘At least he’s an animate object.’

‘Are you objectifying your dog, ‘Ro?’ I asked in mock horror and he snorted in amusement, shaking his head at me.

‘I’ve loved him far longer than I’ve loved you,’ he said playfully, and I could only roll my eyes.

‘But I’m a close second, right?’ I asked, and I think I may have sounded a bit insecure, even though it was only meant for teasing, because Heero’s grin dimmed to a loving smile.

‘You’re about the same,’ he said and grabbed my board, pulling me in towards him until we were sitting opposite to each other, and he put his other hand behind my head. ‘I can’t do this with Zee, though,’ he said huskily, and our lips crashed together in a passionate kiss.

‘Damn right,’ I said when we let up, slightly short of breath.

‘You want the next?’ Heero asked, nodding towards the new wave that was coming in and I shook my head, needing to catch my breath, and still the fire that Heero always seemed to light within me. The water was warm so it didn’t provide any help in cooling down.

‘You take it,’ I said, and he smirked. I think he knew exactly what he did against me, and I had no doubt that he took great pleasure in teasing me. The asshole.

I rode in with the next wave, stopping right next to where Heero was sitting on his board to watch.

‘You happy?’ he asked and made a motion with his head towards the beach and we started to paddle in.

‘Very. Nothing beats surfing, after all.’

‘Nothing?’ he asked with an arched eyebrow, and I chuckled.

‘One activity in particular excluded,’ I said and he smiled smugly.

We stepped out of the water and simultaneously wrapped one arm around the other’s back, and molded our sides together. We were joined by an overly excited Labrador who ran circles around us as we walked towards the Safe house.

Everyone was standing on the deck, hanging on the railings as we came back up, making me start to pull my arm back. Heero held tight and I acquiesced, putting my hand at his waist again. He gently squeezed his hand at my side and I blew out a soft sigh.

‘Sorry,’ I said silently and he shook his head.

‘Don’t be,’ he said. ‘You know I’ll take your lead in public, but we’re the only ones here.’

‘Why doesn’t it bother you?’ I asked and he frowned.

‘Why does it bother you?’ he asked in return, and I stopped. He stopped with me and looked into my eyes, but I turned away from his intense gaze.

I shrugged. ‘All my life, I’ve been told to hide.’ I glanced up at him. ‘Solo was adamant about it once we became pros.’

‘I was always told to follow my emotions,’ Heero said. ‘They are telling me that I want to show the world that we belong together.’

‘I’m sorry I can’t –‘

‘Like I said, don’t be sorry. I’ll never force you to do anything you’re uncomfortable with.’

‘I don’t know what I did to deserve you,’ I said with a smile and Heero gave a low, guttural laugh.

‘Despite the circumstances that brought you here, I can’t help but be happy that it brought you to me,’ he said and leaned in slightly. He hesitated, which gave me time to close the gap between us and kiss him. It was a quick kiss, and still my heart was racing from doing it out in the open. Heero had a small smile on his lips when I pulled back, and I knew it meant a lot to him that I’d tried to get over some of my insecurities.

‘Lover-boys!’ Wufei called from the deck and we turned to him. I felt slightly ashamed at first, but the grin on Wufei’s face told me that he was teasing, and didn’t mind it at all. ‘Breakfast, if you want it.’

I grabbed Heero’s hand demonstratively, and we walked up to join the others.

It was obvious that Quatre had spent a lot of the night crying. His eyes were red, and he had bags under them, speaking of little sleep. Trowa also looked tired, and I would bet he’d had even less sleep than Quatre.

‘Thanks for yesterday, Duo,’ he said to me, with his normal gentle smile on his face, and I was relieved he’d recovered so well.

‘Anytime, Q’,’ I said. ‘Was Iria fine?’

‘I’ll call her after breakfast, but I think her husband came to pick her up.’

‘Good,’ I said, having felt bad about leaving her alone at the hospital the previous day.

Quatre’s phone rang and Quatre gave a sigh. He gave the screen a brief look before he pressed the call away with a roll of his eyes.

‘Reporters again?’ Trowa asked with a compassionate smile. Quatre gave a tight nod and turned to me.

‘You looked happy out there,’ he said to change the subject and nodded towards the water.

I grinned. ‘I lost myself for a bit,’ I said and grabbed a piece of bread to make myself a sandwich.

‘I’d say,’ Wufei said. ‘You were born to be out there.’

‘Thanks, ‘Fei,’ I said, embarrassed, and looked to Heero who had this weird, proud smile on his face, which only made me blush more.

‘Nice board,’ Trowa said, having gotten up to inspect the board that Heero had shaped for me, and Heero joined him to discuss the intricacies of it.

‘What made you change your mind?’ Wufei asked with a raised eyebrow in my direction.

‘Love,’ I answered quickly and looked toward Heero, and out over the ocean. Something moved in my peripheral vision and made me look to the right, towards the palm trees. My heart sank as I saw Trant walk away, towards the road and a waiting car.

‘Shit,’ I said softly, and the other four followed my gaze.

‘I’ll get him,’ Heero said, but I stepped up to him, putting my hand on his arm.

‘Never mind. It’s not like you can go over there and hit him.’ Heero’s eyes were narrowed in anger, and his entire body told me that he disagreed with me. ‘Heero,’ I chided, and he slammed his hand hard against the railing.

‘We won’t let him print anything,’ Heero said and I shook my head.

‘Not exactly how it works, ‘Ro.’

‘Damn!’ he said and I agreed full heartedly. ‘I’m so sorry, Duo.’

‘It’s not your fault,’ I answered. ‘I wasn’t exactly innocent.’ I smirked, thinking back to our kisses in the water, wondering if he’d been there to see that.

‘Duo…’ he trailed off, looking worried, and I sighed.

‘Maybe it’s for the best? He’ll print his article, and I won’t really have to think about whether to continue being a pro or not.’ I think I sounded bitter as I said it. I was bitter. I didn’t the rug pulled out from under me quite like that.

‘Duo, you can’t be sure everyone would drop out,’ Quatre said heatedly, and I looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

‘I’ve been off the radar for several months; this will just make them take the final decision that they’ve probably been thinking about already.’

‘But you have contracts, right?’ Wufei asked.

I shrugged. ‘Sure. Until the end off this season, but I already broke most of them through taking the hiatus.’

‘If they haven’t broken it off already for that reason, it shouldn’t be a hard thing to bring them up on charges for discrimination,’ Quatre said, and I knew he meant well.

‘Yeah, but pressing charges against sponsors wouldn’t exactly bring new ones running,’ I said and he looked down at the table.

‘Still –‘

‘Maybe we should stop speculating.’ I said, tired of thinking about it. ‘We’re not even sure Trant got anything. If it happens, we’ll deal with it then.’

It suddenly seemed as though it could only get worse.

‘It was Alex’s car,’ Wufei said and I clenched my jaw to keep from spouting curses.

It made perfect sense. Alex and Mueller had had it in for me from the start. They must have been the ones that had told Trant about my relationship with Heero. At least this was a step up from trying to kill me through fire.

‘I’ll get them at Gundams,’ I said and I saw the smug smile on Wufei’s face, making me wonder if he’d said it to manipulate me into competing despite everything.

It didn’t matter.

I’d kick their collective ass.


	16. Gnarly Conditions

With a little less than a month left before Gundams, I spent every free moment on practicing. Heero had ultimately banned Alex and Mueller from the Surf, and we had free run of the place. The board Heero had shaped for me was proving to be even better for me than Solo’s had been. It hadn’t been the exact replica that I’d first thought; Heero had managed to build it to fit me perfectly. He had been observing me on Solo’s board for so long that he had seen where I’d needed something different, and he’d realized it on his board.

We had heard absolutely nothing about any article being run, so I had thought Surf’d had refused to print it and that it was all done and over with. I should have known better.

I came into Howard’s shop early, and was surprised to see the back door open as soon as I stepped inside.

‘Lock up again, Duo, and get in here,’ Howard said with a nod into the backroom. He sounded sinister and I hesitated for a moment before I locked the door behind me and followed him.

I had never expected to see G on the other side of that door. I hadn’t heard a word from him since the batch of letters he’d sent for me. He sat by the desk with his legs crossed. He tapped a pen against the desk. Howard sat down on the bottom of the stairs, leaving me with the only other available chair in the room.

‘Duo, nice to see you doing well,’ G said with a smug smile and I narrowed my eyes. There was an odd undertone in his words and I wondered what he actually meant by it.

‘Why are you here?’ I asked and G stopped the tapping of his pen.

‘You’ve been busy, I need to do some damage control,’ he answered.

I sighed. ‘Trant?’

‘The very same,’ he said.

‘Shit.’ I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. ‘I’m sorry.’

He laughed, making me raise an eyebrow.

‘Why do you have so little trust in me, after everything I’ve gotten you through?’ he asked, and I looked up at him under my bangs, with a small smirk on my lips.

‘What you’ve done to get me through is exactly why I have so little trust in you, old geezer,’ I teased and he laughed boisterously.

‘I’d forgotten you were rude,’ he said and held up a folder in the air. ‘Read this.’

I got up from the chair, grabbed the folder from him, and opened it. The first thing that met my gaze was a picture of Heero and me in a heated and undeniable kiss on our surfboards during the sunrise. The first thing that struck me was how beautiful it was, before I realized the implications. I put the picture to the side and found an article below it.

_Pro Surfer Closeout_

_Previous up and coming pro surfer Duo ‘Reaper’ Maxwell took a hiatus at the end of the year after the death of Solo Maxwell. He broke the deals with all his sponsors as he went underground. Attempts were made to contact his manager regarding his whereabouts, but even he seemed to be oblivious in regards to what his pro was doing._

_Yours truly, Trant Clark, can finally reveal what he has been doing all this time._

_I first found him on a contest at Sanc Island, where he was growing friendly with the locals. Having looked through all competitions on Sanc since Reaper disappeared, I found that this was his first, and while he took an unlucky fall, he still didn’t make it further than the semi-finals, indicating that he had dropped quite a bit in skill during the months he wasn’t competing._

_Of course, I kept following him, expecting to see more competitions from our talented pro, but instead I found that he was spending more time getting friendly with a local surfer as can be seen on the picture. Obviously, he has dropped all claims to be a pro, and is spending his time with the simpler pleasures of life._

_We can only wonder what will happen with this pro now. Will the sponsors still stick around, even after learning that Reaper has spent little to no time on honing his talent?_

_We can only wait and see._

_Trant Clark_

‘Shit,’ I said and G shrugged dismissively.

‘Surf’d aren’t printing it,’ he said and I frowned.

Even though I’d said that Surf’d wasn’t exactly a gossiping magazine, the article didn’t actually say anything in regards to my being gay, even though it was obvious from the picture he’d wanted to attach to it. The article was entirely open for interpretation, and though I could practically see Trant’s pen dripping with sarcasm I was certain that others would take it at its word, assuming there had been no practice and all pleasure. Most would simply look at the picture and think they should have known I was gay from the braid, and go on with hating me for it. The worst part was that Heero was going to get caught up in it all.

‘How did you manage that?’

‘They’re sending another reporter here, to cover you exclusively until and during Gundams. She’ll have first interviewing rights after each heat.’

I reacted when he said she. I only knew about one girl that worked at Surf’d, and unless they’d hired someone new, this wouldn’t all be as bad as it sounded.

‘Hilde?’ I asked. G’s lips twitched upwards and he nodded. I could live with being shadowed by Hilde.

‘You may want to mention you have a boyfriend, and have her work it in subtly. They are sparing four pages for your coverage in the next issue, and will put it in the days before printing the magazine. It will run before any other surf magazine has another issue coming out.’

‘No pressure, then?’ I said.

My legs were shaking from all the news and I jumped up to sit on the edge of the desk. The only way to justify covering four pages with me in a surfing magazine was through me winning Gundams. I was sure they had a backup plan for the pages if I didn’t do well.

G sighed, and leaned forward. He put his elbow on the desk and started to tap his pen again. I had an urge to grab the pen away from him to get the annoying sound to stop. I knew he’d grab a new one and start up ten times worse to annoy me, so I didn’t bother.

‘It’ll be at least two months before it’s published in any magazine,’ he said, poking at the article with the pen, and looked into my eyes. ‘I can’t answer for the Internet though.’

‘And he can call my sponsors, right?’

‘Right.’ He nodded. ‘I’ve been getting calls from them since yesterday. Most of them have dropped out.’

‘I paid my way to Gundams on my own, I can do without sponsors,’ I said and he raised an eyebrow.

‘You know you’re like a son to me, Duo, but sometimes you’re acting stupid.’

‘Only sometimes?’ Howard cut in with a mutter, and I stared at him, having forgotten he was still around.

‘He does seem to have a tendency to stick his ass in the dirt, right?’

‘Just like you told me,’ Howard said. I thought my jaw would drop to the floor.

‘You guys know each other?’

‘Since we were Sweepers,’ Howard answered with a smirk and I jumped to my feet. I stared between the old men and both sat calmly with similar smug smiles.

‘You were in Sweepers? No way, I would have recognized you.’

The Sweepers team had been the best in their days and had, much like their name implied, swept through most of the competitions they had entered, taking the top positions. They revolutionized the world of surfing with their new tricks and daring ways. It had been a large team, of nearly twenty persons, but only five had ever appeared in any magazines as their outward faces.

‘You may know us better as Sweeper and Pestilence,’ Howard said, pointing at himself and then at G.

I shook my head in disbelief. Howard had even been the captain, the creator of the team, and I’d always admired him. Sweeper and Pestilence had been the greatest.

‘Shit! Why didn’t you tell me?’ I asked, shifting my eyes between the two of them.

‘Was it ever important?’ G asked.

‘I thought you didn’t even know how to surf!’ I told G and he laughed.

‘I don’t, not anymore. I’m leaving that to you youths.’

‘But, how did you know I was here anyways?’

‘We talk on occasion,’ G said with a nod at Howard. ‘There aren’t that many surfers named Duo from Elto. I would go as far as to say there’s only one.’

‘Man,’ I said under my breath and went back to my chair where I sat down and put my head in my hands. ‘What now?’

‘Hilde is joining you tomorrow. I’m making some calls around for new sponsors. You should focus on training until Gundams.’

‘That is to say, you aren’t working here until you’ve finished the contest,’ Howard said, and I stared at him as my stomach dropped to the floor.

‘Howard, I can’t… I’ve got to make money,’ I said, looking at him pleadingly.

I couldn’t rely on Heero any more than I already did. He already gave me a roof over my head. After everything, I didn’t want to ask him to pay for my food as well.

‘It’s paid vacation. Didn’t you read your contract?’ Howard asked and I blinked.

‘But –‘

‘Enforced, paid vacation. I don’t want you in here for the next month unless it’s to buy groceries,’ Howard said.

I was happy I was already sitting down; otherwise I probably would have sat down on the floor.

It felt a bit like cheating. Like I was going to get paid for doing nothing at all, while trying to keep my other job. Trying to keep my first job, actually. I guess working at the shop was the other job.

There wasn’t much more to say, so G gave me a ride to the Safe house, and I sat down on the deck, still in a bit of shock at everything that had happened. Trant was doing his best to destroy everything. In the back of my mind I thought that I had managed to destroy everything on my own. I was the one who had left without anything more than a letter, leaving G to handle the sponsors. I had been the one who hadn’t been careful enough, allowing Trant to get a glimpse of what should have been a private moment between Heero and me.

‘You’re back early,’ Trowa said, and I flinched, jumping to my feet as I turned around to face him.

‘Don’t scare me,’ I said.

He frowned instead of teasing me about my obvious fright, and I wondered what I had to look like for him to drop such an opportune moment.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked with a raised eyebrow.

‘Trant’s been giving out calls to all my sponsors,’ I answered and Trowa narrowed his eye and sat down. I followed his example, sitting back down in the chair I’d recently vacated, and looked out over the ocean.

‘They’re gone?’

‘Most of them, yeah,’ I said and shrugged. ‘I don’t even know what I’m so upset about anyways.’

‘To have something ripped out under your feet would upset anyone,’ he answered, and I turned to observe him. I’ve never spoken a lot one on one with Trowa; he’s kind of a quiet, but passionate guy, with a somewhat strange sense of humor. But he’s surprisingly insightful.

‘Yeah, I guess I kind of wanted to choose for myself, you know?’ I said, and we sat in silence for a while.

‘He got a picture of me and Heero,’ I said, and Trowa glanced at me, but he didn’t say anything. ‘I wanted to keep him out of it.’

‘He’s fine with it. You’re the one that’s hiding your relationship,’ he said sharply, and I couldn’t deny it.

‘To protect –‘

‘Bullshit,’ he said, before I could finish my sentence. ‘You’ve been trying to protect yourself.’

‘Like Quatre?’ I asked, and regretted my words when he took a sharp breath of air.

‘Yes, like Quatre. But Quatre has been clear from the beginning that he needs to keep it secret. You keep insisting that you don’t hide it. Can you imagine how much it hurts Heero when you flinch away from his touches, even when it could be taken as a friendly gesture? And yet you can touch him however you wish.’

I thought about it and he was right. I’d seen the same behavior between him and Quatre. He knew how much Heero was hurting only because he was struggling with the same feelings.

‘Tro’, Quatre loves you. More than anything. He’s pretty high profile right now when he’s taking over his father’s company, and he can’t have any scandals –‘

‘That’s your problem, Duo. You keep thinking of it as a scandal. What’s wrong with thinking about it as two people loving each other?’

‘It’s…’ I tapered off.

When had I started thinking of being gay as a scandal? I’d always thought I was pretty open with it, but in reality, Heero was my first real boyfriend. The first one I’d spent any more time with than a date at the evening at a place that couldn’t be considered romantic in the slightest.

Heero had been taught to follow his emotions. I’d been taught how to run and hide.

‘Damn, I’m the asshole,’ I groaned, leaning my head in my hands.

‘It’ll be difficult to come out among surfers, Duo.’ He got up and put a hand on my shoulder ‘We can’t be the only ones though. You can do some good, if you allow it,’ He squeezed gently with his hand and disappeared into the shop.

How could I reply to that?

He was trying to make me see how selfish I’d been acting. Trying to make me see how much I was hurting Heero. How much I was hurting myself.

I sighed deeply and grabbed my board, heading out for the ocean. I needed to clear my head.

The others joined me after their jobs, and while I got some comments that I was looking pruny, they didn’t ask me any more questions as to why I had obviously been in the water hours before I was supposed to quit my job for the day.

Or at least there wasn’t until we went to bed that night.

‘Duo, did something happen today? You seemed… distracted,’ Heero asked as he got into the bed next to me.

I lifted my head up and put it down on Heero’s shoulder. He nimbly got his arm under me and closed his hand around my shoulder. He tilted his head slightly and put his lips against my forehead. I snuggled close to him.

‘Trant got a picture of us,’ I said, and I felt him tense up under me.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said silently, and I felt his warm breath and soft lips touch my forehead as he spoke.

‘I was also royally told off by Trowa for being an asshole,’ I said with a smirk.

Heero twisted, dropping my head from his shoulder and onto the pillow as he sat up. I had to take a hold of his arm to not have him rush into Trowa’s room and try to maim the poor guy.

‘It wasn’t undeserved. Come back and be my pillow,’ I said with a chuckle, and he eyed me dubiously before he lay back down and we arranged ourselves back into the same position. ‘He kind of, brought to my attention how I’ve been acting with you in public.’

‘He shouldn’t have. You don’t want to show off and you don’t have to. No matter what Trowa says.’

‘I know that, ‘Ro. But it’s not okay that I will touch you whenever, and you’re barely allowed to put your arm around my shoulders.’

‘I don’t mind, though,’ he said, and I thought he was being overly kind, because he sounded a bit choked up, indicating that he might actually have been thinking about it quite a lot.

‘Hey, ‘Ro,’ I said and sat up so I could look him in the eyes. I placed my hand on the side of his face. ‘I don’t know if I can go completely public –‘

‘It’s okay,’ he said, looking at me with wide, shiny eyes, and I hated myself.

I hated myself for not having seen how much I was hurting him. I hated myself for forcing him to hide with me.

‘It’s not okay. I’m not sure how far I’m comfortable with going in public, but I’m prepared to try.’

‘You don’t have to –‘

‘’Ro, please!’ I said and leaned my forehead against his shoulder as I chuckled darkly at the futility of what I was doing. He wasn’t going to let me apologize properly. He was thinking about me to this degree, and how much had I thought about what my actions were doing to him? I had been so incredibly selfish.

‘Duo? I’m sorry,’ he said and put his hand on my cheek, thumb under my chin, and made me lift my head up to look at him.

‘That’s what I’m trying to say. I’m sorry, ‘Ro. I’ve really been an ass,’ I said and he looked me intently in the eyes, a swirl of emotions rolling by too fast for me to identify them all. But there was sadness, and joy, and pain. But his face finally settled into a serene expression, and all I could see was love.

‘I’ll try, ‘Ro,’ I whispered and leaned down to kiss him. His hand flowed gently over my shoulder, down my arm until he grabbed my wrist and turned us over, putting him over me.

‘It’s all I ever wanted,’ he said and captured my lips once again as his hand came to rest on my hip.

The kisses grew hotter and heavier, and our lovemaking that night was of the slow and gentle kind. We teased until both of us were covered in sweat and we went on in a languid pace that had both of us desperate for more. When neither of us could take it any more we finally gave in and increased the pace. Heero put his hand over my mouth as I screamed my completion. Heero followed soon after, burying his head against my shoulder to silence himself, only allowing a moan to escape.

It left me breathless, more than any of our faster sessions ever had. Heero brushed his lips along my collarbone and slipped out of me gently, but it still made me flinch as it burnt unexpectedly.

‘Duo?’ he asked, lifting his head and looking at me in concern.

‘I’m fine,’ I said with a small smile and he narrowed his eyes, telling me without words he didn’t believe me. ‘A bit sore, maybe.’

‘You should have told me,’ he said and I laughed.

‘I kind of didn’t feel it until just now. ‘Ro, it was amazing.’

‘It was,’ he said with a satisfied smile and leaned down until our lips met in a passionate kiss. I was exhausted, but I still had butterflies in my stomach, and a new heat moved downwards. I pushed gently against Heero, making him groan huskily.

‘Gods, Duo, I can’t go again so fast,’ he said and I chuckled, agreeing fully.

I pushed against his shoulder with my hand and he lifted himself off of me. He rolled off the bed and I followed and grabbed the sheet of the bed as I got off as well. I hated sleeping on wet spots.

‘Shower,’ I said and Heero handed me a towel that he’d already grabbed from his closet.

We padded our way through the hall, to the showers.

‘Do you think they’re awake?’ I asked, and I thought I was silent.

‘Only the dead could sleep through that, Duo!’ was called from Wufei’s room. It wasn’t Wufei but Sally, and I chortled.

‘Get him, Sal’.’ I said and Heero snorted in amusement before pulling on my hand to make me follow him into the shower.

Sex was a perfectly viable way to clear your thoughts from any trouble. It was right up there with surfing.

Or actually, it was probably Heero who chased all the trouble away.

With him, I could get through this.


	17. Locals

I’ll be the first to admit that I was a bit unsteady on my board the next day. A night with little sleep and a lot of action has a tendency to make you a bit shaky. There was still some soreness that decided to sting at the most inopportune moments, like when popping up on my board.

Heero looked guilty every time I winced, so I tried very hard not to show anything. It wasn’t too easy in the salty water and I decided the hell with it and got up, walking to the Safe house.

I frowned when I saw someone leaning over the railing, and narrowed my eyes to try and see who it was.

‘Hilde!’ I called, and started to jog, but it kind of burnt, so I settled for a faster walk.

She went down from the deck and ran to meet me. I barely had time to set my board down before she jumped into my embrace and I spun us around once before I set her back down on her feet.

‘Damn, Hil’, I didn’t think you were going to arrive this early.’

‘I took the red-eye,’ she said. ‘You’ve really gotten yourself in a pickle.’

‘I know,’ I said and chortled. ‘But my new friends have made me realize it might be a blessing in disguise.’

‘How so?’ she asked, and I half expected her to bring out her voice recorder right there.

‘We’ve got days, let’s catch up first,’ I said, picking up my board again before I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and led her back to the deck. ‘Damn, I’m really glad to see you again, Hil’.’

‘Of course you are, I’m here to save your sorry ass. Again,’ she said arrogantly and I had to hug her again. I’d missed her.

‘Duo, company,’ she said into my ear and I turned around to see Heero hanging back with a set face and a weary gaze towards us. I nearly swore. I’d never gotten around to telling him about the deal with Surf’d, or about Hilde’s impending arrival. I’d thought I’d have more time.

‘Hil’, this is Heero, my boyfriend.’ Heero’s features softened and he walked towards us. ‘’Ro, this is Hilde, my archenemy, best friend and…’ I paused and looked at Hilde and she smiled sadly.

‘Solo’s girlfriend,’ she said, finishing the introduction. I didn’t miss the flash of relief in Heero’s face and the sagging of his shoulders. But then he registered what she’d said, and his face fell in guilt and sadness.

I held out my hand for him, which he took a hold of, and we went to sit down in the chairs. Heero and I sat down in chairs next to each other and Hilde sat opposite from me. I didn’t let go of Heero’s hand.

‘Archenemy?’ Heero asked and I laughed.

‘We competed for Solo’s attention before we realized we could join forces,’ I said.

‘He never stood a chance,’ Hilde said, grinning widely in remembrance.

‘No one would with the two of us attacking from both sides.’

Heero looked a bit confused, but he had a smile on his face. I squeezed his hand as thanks for taking all the news so well.

‘So, you’re here to visit Duo?’ Heero asked and Hilde looked at me in surprise and leaned forwards in her chair.

‘You didn’t tell him?’ she asked me. Heero frowned deeply and I felt him tense under my hand.

‘I was planning to, last night,’ I said and he relaxed and smirked in memory. I turned to Hilde. ‘I got a bit preoccupied,’

‘Details, Duo,’ she said, and I squeezed Heero’s hand when I felt him tense again.

‘No way, you’ll just print it in your article.’

‘Strictly PG-13, I promise,’ she said with a wide smile and held up her hands.

‘PG-13 was not what was going on last night,’ Wufei grumbled from the door and came out with breakfast and with Sally in tow. He looked tired and I guessed that Sally hadn’t let him get back to sleep even after Heero and I had finished our shower and gotten back to bed.

‘Sorry, ‘Fei,’ I said, even thought I wasn’t feeling very apologetic.

‘What about us?’ Quatre asked as he and Trowa came out behind Sally.

‘Sorry, you guys,’ I said nonchalantly and smiled when Heero sniggered.

I noticed Trowa give a glance to our joined hands and he gave me a small nod, almost as if he was thanking me. Quatre and Trowa sat down next to each other close enough to touch their legs with the others, but that’s all they did and I felt for them. I’d talk to them later, and tell them that Hilde was perfectly safe because I didn’t want them to feel the need to be overly discreet at home. She was going to be around for a while after all.

Wufei sat down in the last remaining chair and Sally looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He grabbed her hips and pulled her down onto his lap, making her yelp in surprise. He blushed slightly but put his arm around her waist to help keep her in place, and I thought they looked indescribably cute together. I was sure neither of them would thank me for thinking that.

‘Guys, this is Hilde. She’s my best friend from Elto, and is here on a mission for Surf’d magazine.’

‘Mission, Duo? Really?’ she asked before she stood up and shook hands with everyone.

‘Trant got a picture of Heero and me in a somewhat… revealing position. Basically, she’s here to cover the Gundams and me if I win. The mag’ should run at about the same time as Trant manages to release his story to another paper.’

‘And if you don’t win?’ Sally asked, and I looked at Hilde, who was shaking her hands in front of her face.

‘There’s no such constraint, where did you get such an idea from, Duo?’ she asked, but continued without waiting for my answer. ‘I’m covering Duo because we’ve had a lot of requests to do a larger story on him. We got the opportunity, so we jumped at the chance in relations to Gundams. But Duo, I’m starting to believe what Trant wrote about your decline in skills. What were you doing out there?’ she asked with a nod towards the ocean, and a trickle of heat travelled to my face in embarrassment, and Heero squeezed his hand in mine.

‘Don’t worry, Hil’. It’s a temporary slump,’ I said and she laughed in understanding.

‘Fine, I won’t make you tell. But you do know you have to give me a bunch of interviews, right?’

‘We’ve got plenty of time,’ I answered. ‘Can we stop talking and start eating, please?’

‘Still always hungry, Duo?’ Hilde asked and sat back in her chair.

‘You’re welcome to eat as well, Hilde,’ Quatre said and motioned her forwards to the table.

She grinned and leaned forwards again to pick up some breakfast.

It was nice to have her around, even though it was due to work. She followed my for my practice every day and I wasn’t the slightest bit disturbed by it. Whenever her job had allowed it she had joined Solo and me so it felt like old times. Only one person was missing. She watched me surf, and joined me on the days when the waves weren’t too big. We had lunch together and she always had her recorder out, in case she would come up with some awesome question. I’d noticed her press the record button in some of our more regular conversations as well but I trusted her not to put in anything that shouldn’t be known by the public.

She had dinner with us during the evenings before she left for her hotel, and had managed to get Heero to tell her all about the board he’d shaped for me. I had been a bit worried about anything else she might weasel out of him as well, but Heero wasn’t one to let anything go easily.

The first day of the waiting periods came around quicker than I would have liked. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for everything that would come from all my sponsors dropping off.

It was announced that the trials for the locals would be held that first day, with some sweet waves coming in at around 8 feet at Choker. Howard hadn’t been kidding when he’d said that all of Sanc went into a stand still when Gundams started. The entire population had made their way down to the beach and we had to push through a lot of people in order to get to the check-in tents. The guys had been prepared for the mess, and we had left the car back at the Safe house, opting to go by foot.

Trowa, Wufei and Mueller were the only ones I knew that were going through the trials to go on to the real Gundams competition. Heero was going out on the jet-ski. Even though I’d known he’d do it, I was a bit bummed about it. It meant I wasn’t going to be able to talk to him until the day was over. At least I had Zero with me, and Hilde sat next to me with her notebook and pen in her lap. Quatre had promised he was going to sit with us during Wufei and Trowa’s heats, but as soon as they were finished, he would go back to the Winner Enterprises tent. They were sponsoring the entire competition after all, and he was one of the few that still had to work. In my opinion, he’d been dong too much of that since the death of his father. He had a lot to prove though, as the new president of a huge company while still in his twenties. I hoped he’d be able to relax a little during the competition.

‘Who will win?’ Hilde asked me before the trials had even started, and I chuckled softly. I turned my head to watch her instead of the ocean where I expected Heero to be at any moment.

‘I haven’t seen everyone surf yet, it’s impossible to say. Trowa and Wufei are great, but they have a tendency to make mistakes. Wufei has been having trouble with the rights, but I think he’s starting to get the hang of them. Trowa, he’ll do a lot of aerials, and the ones he nails, he’ll get a high score on. On the rest, he’ll fall.’ I shrugged and she looked at me in shock.

Wufei had gone to Choker to surf on some of the days after the last qualifier. Quatre hadn’t had any time to coach him anymore, but he still seemed to start grasping them. I had only seen him grab a few at the Surf however, and he was still struggling.

Zero stood up on his feet and barked loudly.

‘Sit, boy,’ I said, put my hand on his back and pressed gently to get him to sit back down as I looked out over the ocean again to see what he’d reacted at.

Heero was driving his jet ski over the waves to get out to their zone, and both Zero and I let our gazes follow him. He’s good on the jet-ski. He knows exactly how to handle it when he takes the waves, and it doesn’t look anything like the big-weight hundreds-of-pounds machinery that it is. His turns were swift and he controlled the movements of the jet-ski meticulously. Just like he did a surfboard. I’d never asked him why he rather goes out on the jet-ski than competing, but I guessed it had something to do with his lifeguard job. I didn’t even know if he was volunteering, or if it was actually a part of his job, so I resolved to ask him later.

When the first round started we were all fully engrossed as we watched the locals surf. I had seen many of them at the Surf and had surfed with a few of them without knowing their names.

‘Do you know them?’ Hilde asked, and I shook my head.

‘I’ve surfed with a few, but I never knew their names.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Names don’t matter out there. All that really should matter is your love of surfing.’

‘It isn’t?’ she asked and I raised an eyebrow as I looked at her from the side. She had her recorder out and I snorted softly, making Zero flinch and look back at me as the puff of air hit his back.

‘Skill matters, obviously. The more skilled you are, the less likely someone else is to drop in on you. They trust you’ll be able to catch the wave. There’s a huge amount of arrogance out there, and confidence, which you need in order to be able to commit to the waves. I’m guilty of it as well.’ I smirked. ‘Usually it’s only used to get the wave, but sometimes it takes a bad turn, and arguments turn into outright brawls.’

‘And there’s a lot of arguments?’

‘Mainly if someone snakes or drops in on someone else,’ I said and gave a sigh, turning to Hilde. ‘Hil’, this isn’t news to you or the readers.’

‘Indulge me,’ she said with a small snicker, but I rolled my eyes and continued.

‘Basically, someone grabbing someone else’s wave it going to be the main reason. Or if some arrogant surfer is threatened by someone better than them.’

‘You get that a lot?’

I laughed, not having expected the question, though I probably should have.

‘I tend to go surfing when there isn’t a lot of people out, often during sunrise and sunset. Here, I’ve had the fortune to meet up with a few awesome locals that have a great beach, so I’ve been able to go out a bit more during the day. But back in the day, yeah, I got a lot of that. My braid doesn’t exactly give me any bonus points either.’

‘How so?’ she asked, and I narrowed my eyes, frowning.

‘It brings a few comments. Once I became pro, it got better, since more people recognize me.’

‘What kind of comments?’

‘Hil’, what are you getting at?’ I asked, a bit annoyed. I’d figured out that she wanted to get me to tell everyone that I was gay and that I had a boyfriend, but I wasn’t sure this was the best way of doing it. She raised an eyebrow at me, and I sighed. It wouldn’t help arguing with her; it never did. ‘Mainly they said things pertaining to my sexuality, but I never paid it much mind. Sometimes they told me I’d get my braid caught in my leash,’ I said and both she and I chuckled. Hilde had been the one to say it after she’d seen me surf the first time.

‘I remember that. I was so surprised to see you with that tail of hair, whipping out behind you,’ she said once she’d stopped laughing. ‘Which competition was it I was covering back then anyways?’

‘Just a local thing in Elto. But you wrote an entire spread on Solo and me, even though neither of us won.’

‘I knew the two of you would be great. And I was right,’ she said with a grin and I smiled, thinking Solo would have been even greater if he’d still been alive. ‘Oh, Duo,’ she said and I saw her turn off her recorder before she wrapped her arms around me. I put my hand on her arm, patting it gratefully.

‘I’m sorry for just leaving like that, Hil’,’ I said and she drew back.

‘You should be. You have no idea how worried I was. To first lose Solo, and then…’ she looked down in the sand, and bit her lip.

‘I’m so sorry, Hil’,’ I said again, not knowing what else to say. I put my arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to me, until she was leaning her head on my shoulder. ‘I didn’t know what else to do.’

‘I know. And now, when I see you here, I’m happy that you left. It looks like you’ve found yourself here,’ she said and my heart skipped a beat.

‘Yeah,’ I said, looking out over the ocean, skipping over the surfers that were out and let my eyes settle on Heero. ‘I found myself, and so much more. I found love.’

‘He treats you right?’

‘Too good,’ I said, thinking that he probably should have kicked me out already, considering how I’d been treating him.

‘It’s not possible to treat my little brother too good,’ she said, and I chuckled, pleased at being called her brother once more.

‘Thanks, Hil’, I said, and we sat in comfortable silence again. My arm was still wrapped around her shoulders as we went back to watching the competition.

Trowa and Wufei easily worked their way through the first round and the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, there were two heats, with four persons in each, and the two best from both would move on to the finals.

Quatre joined us for the semis where Trowa and Wufei both were competing in the second heat. From the first heat, Mueller and a surfer I didn’t know, by the name Walt, had already qualified to the finals. The heat Trowa and Wufei were in was going to be the last of the day, pushing the finals of the trials to take place on the same day as the start of Gundams.

Trowa and Wufei had been getting great scores the entire day but the waves were becoming rougher. There were fewer waves that they even attempted paddling on, with many of them being closeouts. The best scores they had so far was around six, which was good when compared against the other two. However, the others had caught more waves while Trowa and Wufei had only caught one each. With the points from the best two waves added together, the other two were leading when there was ten minutes left of the heat.

With seven minutes left, Trowa paddled for a wave and caught it easily, following it to his right. He stayed a bit ahead of the barrel, before he compressed, rotated his shoulders and executed a frontside snap. The wave barreled around him, hiding him from our sight.

‘He lost too much speed,’ Quatre said and grabbed a tight hold of my arm.

I agreed. It was a fast closing wave, and the snap had brought Trowa’s speed down by quite much. I was worried he’d already fallen. It made me try to keep one eye on the whitewash for a board, and one eye at the still breaking part of the wave to see if he would exit.

The wave started to close out from the other side, and my breath caught in my throat. Where was he?

‘Where is he?’ Quatre asked, mirroring my thoughts. I shook my head, still not seeing anything.

When the wave was about to close, and I was close to giving up all hope on Trowa still standing on his board, he escaped through the dog door. Quatre gave a shout of joy. The wave slammed down behind Trowa and washed him forwards with the whitewater. With Trowa being Trowa, he bent at the waist, giving everyone a deep bow, and there were applause all over the beach.

‘I’ll kill him for scaring me like that,’ Quatre muttered, making me laugh.

‘You won’t get much use of him then’ I answered and Quatre elbowed me in the side, making me groan. His elbows are much too sharp.

Wufei paddled for the next wave, and we shut up.

He almost fell into the trough, waiting too long to push down, which made him lose the water. It made me hold my breath. He grabbed the rail, and leaned slightly, managing to land the board and stay on top of it. I released my breath slowly and heard Quatre and Hilde do the same next to me. Wufei surfed high on the wave, where he did a partial cutback, almost getting into the barrel. The wave was already closing out from the other side as well, so he couldn’t get the pipe. He bailed over the break with a nice air, landing neatly in the whitewater.

‘He’s got it, right?’ Quatre asked, still holding on to my arm, which I was certain was going to bruise.

‘I’m not sure,’ I answered, and peeked towards the scoreboards. He was three points behind the person currently in second, and while his air had been good there had been so many barrel rides that an aerial wasn’t a guarantee for a high score.

‘It has to be,’ Hilde said, sounding as though she was holding her breath, and I grinned as I realized how much she’d come to like my friends as well.

‘He got it!’ I said as I watched the score appear on the board, putting Wufei below Trowa who’d gotten a high score for his pipe.

‘I hope the two others won’t get new waves,’ Quatre mumbled, and I pushed at him slightly.

‘Don’t say that,’ I said, grinning widely.

‘Oh, right. It’ll jinx them,’ he said teasingly and I laughed, but I was hoping the same.

A wave came up when there was thirty seconds to go on the clock, and the surfer with priority caught it. The wave went into a nice pipe, and closed quickly around the surfer. Too quickly.

A board flew up, broken in half, and a head poked up after it. Heero was already moving, and when he was next to the surfer he reached out to grab the surfer’s hand, helping him onto the pad. There were some unmistakable red scratches on the guy’s arm, and I felt a bit guilty about having wished that they didn’t get any waves.

The siren had already hooted to signal the end of the heat, but with everyone focusing on what was going on in the water, no one had really noticed. When we figured out the fallen surfer was going to be okay we finally realized both Trowa and Wufei had gone on to the finals and we hugged each other. Zero skipped about around us with his tail wagging happily.

Wufei, Trowa, and Heero came towards us with very uncharacteristic beams on their faces and soon joined our hugging feast. I took a hold of Heero’s hand and he looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I smiled, and squeezed a little, making him wrap his hand around mine as well. This much public display was fine.

‘Love you,’ I said to him softly, not loud enough for anyone else to hear, but he smiled affectionately and I knew that he’d heard.

He pressed his side closer to me, dropped my hand and put his arm around my waist instead.

‘I love you too,’ he said. My heart still skipped every time I heard it.

‘Let’s go home,’ I said, and he stared at me for a moment before a smile lit up his face all the way to his eyes.

‘Yeah. Let’s go home,’ he said, emphasizing the word home enough to make me realize I’d never called the Safe house home before. It had always been Safe house, or Heero’s place, or simply the house.

It had somehow become my home.

It was an entirely unexpected but very nice feeling.

I had a home.


	18. Flash Rip

After the locals’ trials, the weather was a bit too mild for the competitions to truly start, and I spent the extra days on running, or borrowing a longboard and going out into the water to catch the small waves that were stirred up.

Three days after the trials, the wind started to pick up during the evening, creating larger bumps on the water, and we went to bed hoping that they would be good in the morning. I say we went to bed but I couldn’t fall asleep, and I kept tossing and turning until Heero let out a suffering sigh.

‘Duo, please,’ Heero muttered, clearly tired and I settled on a position on my side, looking towards him.

‘Sorry. Go to sleep,’ I said in a whisper.

‘Trying,’ he complained and I let out a soft snicker. I lifted my arm to use it as a pillow and curled my hand in Heero’s soft hair, gently brushing his scalp with my fingers.

He was asleep within minutes and I stayed for a while longer to make sure he wouldn’t wake up before I crept out of the bed as smoothly as I could. I grabbed a pair of shorts on the way out and dressed once I was out of the room to avoid disturbing Heero any more.

The night was completely black but I could hear the crashing of the waves against the shore. I grabbed my board out of habit and when I realized I’d brought it I didn’t want to go back up, so I put it down on the beach beside me as I sat down. I wasn’t surprised when Zero showed up and sat down next to me. He still didn’t let me go anywhere alone during night.

The water licked at my feet and the sand played around my toes as it pulled back for the next wave. The sand escaped from under my feet and buried them. I leaned forward and picked up some of the wet sand in my hand before turning it over. The sand fell in lumps onto the sand and created small craters where it landed.

 _Gundams_.

If the waves stayed like this, I was sure that they’d announce the start of the first day. It was a bit of a double-edged sword. I _wanted_ to surf the waves, and I had to admit I was missing the feeling of showing off to a huge audience. I missed hearing applauds, and I missed the pressure that you only got from knowing that someone was judging your every move. In an odd way, I missed the popularity.

But at the same time I knew it couldn’t be the same. I didn’t have sponsors anymore, and I’d be the odd man out. Gundams would be the last contest where I could choose whether everyone would know me as a talented surfer, or as a gay surfer. I could ask Heero that we go back to being as discreet as we had been, but even as I thought about it I knew I couldn’t do it.

I would go to the competition, and I would handle everything as it came at me. There wasn’t any point brooding over it. Everyone would know everything after Gundams anyways.

For once, I didn’t want to run away. I didn’t want to hide. It left me with one single option. Stay, and tell the truth.

I withdrew my feet from the water and lay down on the sand, head on my surfboard, looking up at the stars that had started to appear as the clouds dispersed. Zero curled up next to me and put his head on my arm. The sound of the waves and my own peace of mind quickly lulled me to sleep.

‘Duo!’ Heero called, and I heard running steps coming towards me at the same time as the weight of Zero on my arm disappeared. I blinked my eyes open tiredly, feeling as though I’d only just gone to sleep.

‘Duo!’ Heero called again, and this time I could hear the panic in his voice. I lifted my head to see what had happened just as he slid down next to me. He put his face at the same level that I was at, his eyes scanning over my body until his gaze landed at my eyes.

‘Can you talk?’ he asked, out of breath.

‘Yeah,’ I mumbled, confused what he was on about. I started to sit up, but he put his hand on my shoulder and kept me down.

‘Stay down. What happened?’

‘What do you mean?’ I asked him, and I blame my sleep-deprived brain for not realizing that it might be a bit of a scare to see the body of your lover lying by the edge of the water. Especially when said lover had a history of surfing at night.

‘Duo,’ he said suspiciously, pulling out my name. He narrowed his eyes and took his hand away from my shoulder as he leaned back to sit on his feet. ‘What are you doing?’

I sat up to get to his height and rubbed at my gritty eyes.

‘Sleeping,’ I told him and his lips tightened.

‘Why?’

‘I didn’t want to keep you awake,’ I said with a shrug, becoming more and more awake.

The skies were starting to light up in that pre-sunrise mix of yellow, blue and purple at the horizon, with the stars and the moon still shining brightly in the dark heavens above.

‘Shit,’ he muttered, took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He exhaled unsteadily, and not until then did I realize that I had scared him.

‘’Ro, I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘I needed to wrap my head around some things.’

‘Without me?’ he asked, sounding incredibly vulnerable, and I crawled on my knees to him where I pulled him into my arms. He tensed before he let himself lean against me.

‘Not without you. You’re the only reason I know what to do,’ I said. ‘I’ll get out there today, and I’ll do what I love. My sponsors have left, but I love surfing. I love competing.’

‘Good,’ he said and turned slightly in my arms to lock our lips together.

He pulled back and looked directly into my eyes.

‘I’m still angry with you,’ he said and I nodded. ‘Never go to the beach to sleep again. At least not without telling me.’

‘I wasn’t exactly planning to –‘

‘Duo,’ he chided and I gave him a slanted smile. He was right. At the very least I could have left him a note. I wasn’t sure what it would have said. _Not surfing_ might have been a start.

‘Sorry,’ I said, and he leaned forward to kiss me again, telling me that I hadn’t screwed up hopelessly.

‘The waves are nice today,’ he said when we broke up and we looked out over the water.

‘Yeah. I’m sure they’ll announce first day for today,’ I said, and the familiar excitement from knowing I was about to go surfing in front of hundreds of people grow within me.

‘’Ro? Let’s go surfing?’ I asked and he chuckled softly.

‘I’ll stay here and watch,’ he said, and I frowned. He never rejected an offer to go surfing and I looked at him a little closer. His face was still drawn, but not in anger. He looked sad and unfocused, like he was thinking about something.

‘’Ro? Are you sure you’re fine?’

‘I’m not the one who was sleeping on the beach,’ he said, eyes focusing on me and I shook my head. ‘I’m fine, Duo,’ he assured me steadfastly, and even though I knew he was hiding something I couldn’t very well force him to tell me if he didn’t want to share.

‘You –‘

‘Yes! Go surf, you’re losing the sunrise,’ he said and I frowned. I didn’t want to leave him with whatever thoughts he was going through, but at the same time, it seemed as though he wanted to be alone. I wished I knew if he needed to be alone, or if he needed me.

‘Go,’ he said again, softer, and I decided to take him at his word, but I resolved not to let it go until we’d gotten to the core of it. I was granting him a short reprieve; that was all. Until he was ready.

I grabbed my board and threw a final glance over my shoulder at Heero before I paddled into the waves. He watched me, or at least in my direction, with that unseeing quality of a mind lost in memory. I wouldn’t have left the bed if he hadn’t gotten annoyed with my tossing. But then again, I should have known better than to lie down on the beach to sleep as well. I couldn’t blame anyone other than myself for whatever pain Heero was going through.

I caught a wave, and once I’d finished it, I looked intently at Heero, trying to see if he’d even noticed it. I didn’t think he had and I only became more worried about him. I only caught two more waves before I headed up, back to Heero.

He jumped when I sat down next to him, my wet thigh flush against his, and my shoulder touching his shoulder. I didn’t say anything, and we watched the remainder of the sunrise together until we silently got to our feet to head back to the deck for some breakfast.

When we started to set everything up for breakfast the tension dissipated slowly. After I’d finished slicing the bread Heero wrapped his arms around me from behind and kissed me gently on the side of my neck, right where it meets the shoulder.

‘Sorry. I’ll tell you everything later,’ he said, and I let out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding.

There was a flurry of activity after that. Breakfast was eaten and the announcement was checked. Like we’d thought, Gundams first day would be that very day. Boards were gathered and then we all headed off towards the beach.

The first heat of the day was the final from the locals’ trials, where the two best would go on to enter Gundams, matching up against the pros.

I couldn’t do much more except cross my fingers that Trowa and Wufei would be the ones to go through. But I had hinted at them to pull out if Mueller tried anything. He’d already tried to kill me with fire once, I was afraid of what he’d come up with that involved water.

Wufei, speaking of fire, was on it. Within the first three minutes, he had caught two great waves and had a combined score of just over seventeen. While he wasn’t safe by any means he could definitely breathe a bit easier, and had a high chance of entering the Gundams, even if he wouldn’t catch another wave during the heat.

Mueller struggled, a lot more than he had in the previous heats, and I wondered if it was because of nerves. It amused me a bit to think that such a common thing affected him, as tough-skinned as he wished to appear.

Trowa waited long enough to make Quatre try to crawl out of his skin. When he finally grabbed his first wave, he made Quatre cry out as he fell when attempting to land his 360. It was unfortunate, because he’d made a decent barrel ride, and had added the aerial to show off. Then he waited again.

‘I thought you talked to him after last time about not waiting so long?’ I asked Quatre, and he slapped my arm.

‘He never listens to me though,’ he said.

‘Far more often than he listens to anyone else,’ I had to quip, and Quatre gave a small smile.

Trowa paddled once more, and popped up at the top of a wave. He slid down into the trough and stalled to get into the barrel. It wrapped around him and he put his hand in the falling water, letting us see the distortion his fingers made in the water.

‘I _did_ tell him to do that,’ Quatre said with a blush on his cheeks, and I laughed.

‘Keeping an eye on him?’ I asked and Quatre nodded.

‘Only if possible, of course.’

‘Of course,’ I said in amusement.

The wave started to pinch and the distortion disappeared as Trowa pulled his hand back, and then he got out with the spit. He skipped the aerial that time, but he couldn’t avoid an extravagant exit off the board, through a backflip, and Quatre let out a loud sigh.

The points were high and put him in second place after Wufei. For the next few minutes we held our breaths as Mueller and the fourth surfer went for one wave each. When the siren sounded Quatre and I hugged each other in excitement. Both of them had made it through.

We walked off towards where Wufei and Trowa would come up, and saw them chat amongst themselves.

‘Congratulations!’ I called, and they looked our way.

Trowa smiled, and Wufei let his gaze continue even after he’d seen us. He scanned the crowd until it settled on something and then he smiled as well. Sally ran towards us, passed us, and didn’t stop until she had launched into Wufei’s arms where she proceeded to kiss him soundly.

The wistful look on Trowa’s face made me feel a pang in my heart. Quatre and I walked at a more sedate pace, and when we reached them, we hugged each other. The only thing to indicate Trowa and Quatre might be a couple was the slightly longer than normal hug. If you looked closely, you could see Trowa give Quatre a slightly more affectionate pat on the back than he had on the rest of us.

‘Next stop, Gundams,’ Wufei said as I hugged him.

‘I won’t go easy on you two,’ I said as I let go and both Trowa and Wufei glared at me.

‘Vice versa,’ Trowa answered, and I grinned.

‘I’d never expect you to.’

We turned away from the water, about to walk back to our seats, but I stopped as I saw Trant and Hilde arriving. I couldn’t walk away because Hilde was there, but I didn’t much feel like staying and listening to what Trant had to say. He’d made it very clear he no longer was a friend of mine.

‘Reaper, I didn’t think you’d show up,’ Trant said with a loud voice.

‘I paid the registration fee, didn’t I?’ I said.

He laughed.

‘It’ll be your last competition then? I heard all your sponsors dropped out.’

‘We’ll find new ones,’ I said, and started to move away from him.

‘Running, are you? You killed someone else?’

I turned and jumped at him. I hadn’t expected to be tackled mid-jump. I slammed down hard on the sand, with a body on top of me, soon joined by another. Trant’s laughter was boiling my blood and I tried to squirm away from Wufei and Trowa’s restraining holds.

‘He’s not worth it,’ Trowa said.

‘You’ll be disqualified if you attack anyone,’ Wufei said, trying to make me see reason, and I stopped fighting against them.

They let me up slowly, their hands still on my shoulders to be able to hold me back in case I would try something again. I shrugged them off. It wasn’t necessary.

‘What is wrong with you?’ Quatre asked, and I looked at him in surprise, thinking he’d been addressing me, but saw that he had his eyes fixed on Trant.

‘Reaper hasn’t told you how he killed his friend?’ Trant asked, and smiled smugly.

I tensed up, and Trowa and Wufei put their hands on my shoulders again, making me take a deep breath.

‘It was a tragic accident,’ Sally said from the side and Trant shook his head.

‘He’s convincing you with a lie. Solo never would have died if it wasn’t for Reaper’s incompetence,’ Trant said with a haughty look, and the tension around us was probably possible to cut with a knife. I looked away, because he cut right through my heart with his words.

‘Enough!’ Hilde said, and walked in between us. ‘It _was_ a freak accident. And you yourself said it wasn’t his fault. You comforted him! What has changed so much?’ She sounded sad.

‘Place blame where blame is due,’ Trant answered, and sneered. ‘Good luck with those sponsors, Reaper.’

He turned on his heel and walked away from us, letting me slump my shoulders. Trowa and Wufei removed their hands after squeezing softly in a show of support.

‘Duo, don’t mind him,’ Hilde said. ‘He’s just trying to get a rise out of you.’

‘I know, Hil’. He’s succeeding.’

‘Come on. Your heat starts in twenty.’

Making my head turn away from Trant and back onto Gundams was easier than I would have expected.

The surf on the first day of Gundams was great. The cheers from the audience were great when I could hear them over the crashing of the waves and the isolating water on three sides when I rode the pipes. I sailed through the first round with a high score, but almost felt sad that I wouldn’t get to do any more surfing in the competition that day. The first round was a non-elimination round, and whoever won their heat went directly to round three.

Wufei was the only one out of us three that got the lowest points in his heat, meaning that he got to surf in the second round as well. He’d surfed against Alex in his first heat, and I hated to admit that Alex was quite good. His rank as surfer had indicated something else, but when I saw him catch a wave that didn’t barrel on him, I saw the reason. He was absolutely great in the barrels, and had perfected the exits, seemingly knowing exactly how the wave would behave. When the wave didn’t pipe, he was lacking, hardly above average.

Wufei ran his second heat of the day with a confidence on the rights that I hadn’t seen before. Not even on the same day, which made me wonder what Sally had bribed him with. Whatever it was, he did great, and all of us were headed for the second day of Gundams.

On the second day, the surf was still great, with the occasional peak at twelve feet. It made for some awesome points in the first round of the day. I got a seventeen heat total and I was stoked to see what the waves would bring for the next round.

When Wufei came in after winning his heat, Sally looked sad as we went up to meat him. I bumped at her with my shoulder so she would turn to me.

‘What’s wrong, Sal’?’ I asked and she shook her head with a small sigh.

‘I watched the matchup for the next round. It’ll be the three of you against each other.’

I almost laughed in relief, though the glare on her face made me stop myself.

‘It’s another non-elimination round. The winner goes on to quarters, the two losers get to go to round five,’ I said and she looked at me out of the corner of her eye. She looked hopeful. ‘Don’t worry, Sal’, we won’t eliminate each other just yet.’

Though I wouldn’t have held anything back even if it was an elimination heat. I wouldn’t hold anything back now either, but the pressure to catch any wave possible isn’t really there during the no elimination heats, so it’s possible to wait for the great ones.

I wasn’t the only one with that idea.

The three of us waited for minutes until I saw the wave that I wanted. I wasn’t alone in wanting it, and in my peripheral vision I saw Wufei and Trowa paddle as well. I backed off, letting them have it as the peak split, letting both of them go in a different direction.

It was just as well, because the wave after that one was even better. It was going to be a left, and I started to paddle to the right in order to be able to drop directly into the barrel. I popped up and turned into the pit with the barrel being created around me and a few feet ahead. It would be a short one that pinched at the top so I steered high and gathered up speed as I hunkered down to get out.

The pipe spat me out before the wave was finished so I turned down and forcefully pumped a few times before I flew over the lip, aiming for a 540 in the air. It was probably a stupid move, I should have gotten a good point for the barrel already, and the air was just risking the exit. There was a moment of doubt, and I missed pressing down to make the board continue in the same pace as me, and suddenly I had made a full turn, the board had turned halfway, and I really needed to land.

I don’t know how it happened, except that it was freak luck, and I landed on top of the surfboard. Instinct took over, and I pressed down, bending my knees, to try and stay where I’d landed. The board’s tail was front so I did a quick turn, ending up with my back foot as front foot. It was unsteady, and probably not very graceful. But it was fun!

I laughed when I dropped into the water.

I paddled out quickly again, sharing a small grin with Wufei and Trowa. They caught their next waves within minutes, and were both picking up some great scores. I went for one more wave within a few minutes, pushing up my own score to contend against theirs but the wave was nowhere near as good as the previous one had been.

With three minutes left of the heat, I was decently certain that both Trowa’s and Wufei’s last rides had pushed their scores above mine, and I focused on the buildup of the waves as I tried to decide which one to grab.

‘I thought you weren’t going to go easy on us?’ Trowa asked when he paddled up next to me.

‘I’m not,’ I said, and gave him a small, cocky grin. ‘I’m just letting you think you have a chance.’

Trowa snickered, and we watched as Wufei grabbed his next wave.

Then it was coming. The wave that I couldn’t let go.

‘See you on the beach, Tro’,’ I said with a wink before I paddled for it.

It was huge. It felt as though I flew into the pit, with the rail of my board grazing the water. I grabbed the rail that was out of the water in order to keep the balance. The wave was so big that I wouldn’t be able to reach the top even if I stretched as far as possible when at the bottom of the barreling wave.

I gently pushed with my foot to start to get higher in preparation for the pinch I was certain the wave was going to do. The board obliged willingly, vibrating under my feet.

Something went wrong then, and I was forced to the side, off the face of the wave. I couldn’t begin to wonder what happened as I did the best I could to regain my balance. I thought I had it, that I could save it, when the foam ball caught up with me, destabilizing me further. I bailed, kicking myself off the board, and away from the falling lip of the wave.

I was too late to escape the force of the wave going into the water, and was pushed downwards quickly, harshly, and my back connected with the reef. I wouldn’t be able to do anything against the force of the wave, so I tried to ride it and relax until it would allow me to get up.

My ankle was jerked at by the leash to my board and I tried to twist to reach it so I could release it, just as I felt the force from the wave let up and I took a quick stroke upwards instead, feeling how my lungs were beginning to burn from the lack of air.

The ocean didn’t have any intention of letting me go however, and I was immediately slammed down by the next breaking wave, hitting the reef with my shoulder this time, and I slid along it until I felt the leash catch on something.

I reached for the Velcro around my ankle again, and frowned when I couldn’t get to it. The reef was holding tight to my shirt and I struggled to rip it loose.

My instincts told me to open my mouth and grab a breath even as I was telling myself I would die if I followed it. My lungs were on fire, I was sure of it.

Don’t panic. It’s one of the first things I was taught. You can hold your breath longer if you don’t panic. You can think better if you don’t panic. But it’s hard! When you’re under the surface, held tight by a reef and pushed down by waves that refuse to let you go, panic is a pretty close feeling to grab onto.

I tried to rip myself loose once more. When I was still as stuck as before and I felt the force of a new wave hold me down again, I knew one thing for sure.

I was dead.


	19. Ding

It was a strange realization; that I was dead. My thoughts drifted and I wondered if Solo had known as well. I wondered what he had thought about during his last moments. Knowing I was dead made it easier, and I closed my eyes, preparing to open my mouth to let the water rush in.

Something smooth and solid brushed against my cheek and I reached up with my hand to remove whatever it was. My hand wrapped around around the necklace I’d gotten by Heero. It felt surprisingly warm in my hand.

 _Heero_.

How could I be dead when everything had finally fallen into place? How could I leave him so soon after finding him?

The force of the crashing wave let up, and I yanked my upper body upwards with a final depletion of strength. It ripped my shirt, but I was finally loose and pushed upwards. It was slow, but I was moving towards the surface.

_I’m coming._

The fire in my lungs was getting hard to ignore and I opened my mouth, but managed to avoid drawing breath. A trickle of water ran down my throat anyways, and my lungs seized up as they tried to make me cough. I had no strength left. I couldn’t make it.

_It hurts!_

Then hands were touching me and grabbed me under my shoulders. Whoever it was pushed the two of us towards the surface when the pull against my ankle got too strong to ignore. My would be savior let me go; continuing upwards, and I tried to reach for him, but I couldn’t move without risking to take that breath that would kill me.

_Take me with you!_

The leash pulled hard on my ankle to keep me below the surface. It was just above me, and I was desperate for air.

_So close!_

A mouth covered mine, and there was air! I wanted to gasp, but forced myself to just accept the air that was given with a single breath. The mouth was removed, and it was Heero’s, I was sure of it. He ran his hand along my leg until he reached the Velcro, and I was loose.

Heero grabbed my legs and pushed us upwards. My head finally cleared the surface, and I could draw a gasping breath and spit salt water out of my mouth. Heero appeared next to me and grabbed me around the back again. Then the Jet Ski ran by us, and Heero somehow managed to push both of us onto the rescue pad. He wedged his knee between my legs and pressed himself against my back to keep me on it.

I was still gasping for air, and closed my eyes to try and push away the pain from the burning in my lungs.

‘Breathe slowly, Duo,’ Heero said into my ear. It sounded as though he was whispering, but all sounds were muted. The sound from the Jet Ski was barely audible, and the crashing of the waves was a mere murmur. The thing I could hear clearly was the wheezing I was creating when breathing, but I was finally getting air, and I couldn’t stop gasping for it.

It went down in seconds, and as I got more oxygen, my awareness of what was going on around me started to come back.

Heero was pressed hard against my back and I reached my hand towards the ropes to help him through keeping myself up, but Heero tightened his arm that was lying across my back.

‘Don’t move!’ he screamed. I heard him screaming this time and was a bit relieved to know I hadn’t ruined my eardrums during my underwater escapade.

The Jet Ski drove onto the beach and came to a stop. Heero immediately got off me, and I made to roll off onto the sand, but was held fast by hands on my shoulders, then Heero’s face was in front of mine. He looked calm as he locked his eyes with mine.

‘Are you hurting anywhere, Duo?’

‘No,’ I said without considering it, and he frowned.

‘Nothing?’

It made me feel for it. The burn in my lungs was still there, but the stinging in my back and shoulder made me groan and close my eyes. There was going to be hell to pay for this wipeout. It didn’t hurt much yet.

‘Duo?’ Heero asked, and I opened my eyes again. ‘Any pain in your back or neck? Do you feel pin and needles anywhere?’

‘No,’ I said, wheezing slightly as I spoke. ‘Just scratches.’ Scratches that, once I’d been made aware of them, were stinging. Salt water and open wounds is never a good combination.

Heero gave a small sigh of relief and smiled. He gently but discreetly stroked with his thumb on my shoulder before he reached around to help me sit up and get me off the pad. He wrapped his hand cautiously around my waist, trying to avoid the scratches, but I was certain there wasn’t a lot of bare skin for him to touch.

‘Sorry,’ he said as I stabilized myself against him, gritting my teeth against the touch. I couldn’t avoid letting out a snort of laughter at his apology.

‘You got me out, you don’t get to be sorry,’ I said and he tightened his hold on me ever to slightly. Being so close to him, I could feel how quickly he breathed and how his hands trembled. His calm expression had been deceptive. His body told me he’d been frightened. Terrified.

‘Sorry,’ I said in turn and he squeezed his hand gently against me. I wanted to kiss him and reassure him that I was fine. I doubted he would have allowed me even if we’d been alone; I could still taste the salt in my mouth.

Wufei joined on my other side, and reached with his hands for my arm, hesitated, and dropped his hand at his side instead, making me turn my head and extend my arm. The vision wasn’t pretty; there was blood just about everywhere along my arm, and it amazed me that it didn’t hurt more than it did. I idly wondered where the wound was. Blood diluted with water has a tendency to spread and look a hell of a lot worse than it actually is.

‘Duo? You all right? Do you feel faint?’ Wufei asked, trying to look into my eyes, and I shook my head. Both Wufei and Heero had gone into their lifeguard modes, and I was their rescue.

‘I’m fine,’ I said, though I had started to tremble slightly without actually feeling cold.

The medic tent wasn’t too far away from the water’s edge, but the hushed sounds of gossiping people followed me all the way in. I hoped they were whispering about the wipeout and not so much the relationship between the rescue and the rescuer. Then I kicked myself for thinking about it.

Heero, Wufei and the doctor soon had me seated on one of the beds with an oxygen mask over my face. It made my head become clearer by the second, but somehow any debilitating pain still managed to stay away, even when the doctor cut the remains of the shirt off and started to pour saline solution over my back and arm. It only stung a bit, and I wondered if everyone had been overreacting so completely.

‘Do you feel any of this, Mr. Maxwell?’ the doctor asked, prodding at my back with his gloved hand.

I nodded before I lifted the oxygen mask. ‘Yeah, it just doesn’t hurt very much.’

Heero placed the oxygen mask over my mouth again.

‘Don’t worry, it will,’ Wufei said, and I removed the oxygen mask again, glaring at him.

‘Where did you come from anyways?’ I asked. ‘You couldn’t have paddled in that quickly.’

Heero squeezed my good shoulder, and Wufei frowned.

‘I drove the Jet Ski in. When you were pushed under, your board didn’t pop up, so I paddled up to join you. Heero had already left the Jet Ski to dive for you when I came up, so I took his spot on it,’ he said, and I frowned.

What had happened? Could I still finish the Gundams? Was Heero even supposed to leave the Jet Ski for Wufei to steal?

‘Where’s my board?’ Many questions ran through my head, and I still don’t know why I settled on that one.

‘I’ll make you a new one,’ Heero said softly.

‘Sorry, ‘Ro,’ I said softly, and looked down on my hands as Heero again put the oxygen mask over my mouth. My hands were shaking furiously, and I started to realize what had just happened. Or at least my body was. The doctor’s ministrations to my back were starting to sting, and I flinched a bit as he touched a particularly sore area.

Heero sat down on his knees in front of me and put his hands over mine, rubbing gently to bring some warmth into them.

‘How you feeling there, Maxwell?’ the doctor asked, and I again had to lift the oxygen mask.

‘Fine. I don’t know why I’m shaking so damned much,’ I said.

‘Your body is trying to get rid of the shock. You’ll be fine,’ the doctor said and came around so I could see him. Heero stood up, relenting his spot to the doctor and moved to my side instead. ‘Your oxygen level is getting back to normal, and there’s no water in your lungs, so we can handle everything here, without sending you off to the hospital. If I remember correctly, you were very adverse to hospitals the last time?’ I have him a grateful nod before the doctor continued. ‘You’ve got pretty extensive scrapes from the reef; I’ll put some adhesive strips on one of the cuts on your arm, and a few strips on your back as well.’

‘Thanks, doc’,’ I said, and he went back around again to continue cleaning the cuts out.

Trowa and Quatre peeked in through the tent flap, and I gave them a wave.

‘You called your last,’ Trowa said in a somewhat amused voice when he came up to me and I frowned.

‘No I didn’t.’

‘See you on the beach, it sounds like calling your last to me,’ he said with quirked smile, and when he said it, I had to agree. I’d called my last. A shiver ran through me.

‘Oh, come on,’ Wufei said in disbelief. ‘Don’t tell me he’s made you superstitious as well, Trowa.’

Trowa shrugged. ‘It’s a valid assumption. See what happened.’

‘I’ve never –‘

‘Stop!’ I interrupted Wufei. ‘Don’t say nothing bad’s ever happened to you, you’ll jinx yourself.’

Wufei rolled his eyes in exasperation, but had an amused smile on his face that made me wonder if he wasn’t just trying to keep my attention away from the doctor who was pressing together the edges of a gash on my arm.

‘He’s right though, Wufei,’ Quatre said.

‘Not you too,’ Wufei groaned, and I laughed along with the rest.

‘Why tempt fate?’ I asked, grinning widely.

‘You seem to do a lot of that though,’ Heero said.

‘Not intentionally,’ I said, and he frowned, making me look closer at him. I thought he looked angry, with his eyebrows drawn together and lips set in a tight line.

‘What?’ I asked.

‘Nothing,’ he said, turned around, and walked out of the tent, making me start to move away from the bed, but was held back by Wufei and Quatre.

‘Still working here,’ the doctor said with an amused tone.

‘Sorry,’ I said, subdued, wondering what the hell I’d said to get that reaction from Heero.

When the doctor finished patching me up, he applied some cream over large parts of my back and shoulder before he covered the tape with compresses and gauze. I had finally stopped shaking.

‘I’m writing you a prescription for an antibiotic cream and oral antibiotics,’ the doctor said and started to write on a paper as he spoke. ‘Get it filled today, coral reefs tend to give infections. You’ll want to rinse everything carefully before you apply the ointment three or four times a day. The orals should be taken three a day, ten days,’ he finished and handed me the prescription.

I lifted the oxygen mask off from around my neck and pushed myself off of the bed, intent on finding Heero when the doctor called out for me.

‘Hey!’ he said, and I turned my head to watch him. He had a stern look on his face. ‘No surfing for a while, now.’

I raised my hand in a wave. ‘Thanks doc.’ I wasn’t about to tell him I had little intention of following his advice.

We left the tent, and the audience had nearly cleared the beach since our heat had been the last of the day.

Hilde however, had stayed outside of the tent and nearly jumped at me when we came out. She stopped herself before she tackled me to the ground. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and held her close.

‘Duo, you’re an ass!’ she said, making me laugh.

‘I’m sorry, Hil’,’ I said, letting her go. I was getting heartily tired of apologizing.

‘I thought… never mind what. I’m happy you’re on your feet.’

‘Geez, thanks for the sympathy, Hil’, I said and she snickered. ‘Hey, did you see where Heero went?’ I scanned the beach but saw no sign of him.

‘Towards the house I think.’

‘Thanks. You joining us?’ I worried about her being alone; I could only imagine what memories my near drowning brought to her. But she shook her head.

‘I have a dinner with Treize,’ she said, pointing with her thumb over her shoulder at where he was standing a bit away.

‘Way to go, Hil’,’ I said with a wink and she elbowed me in the side, making me groan loudly, and bend at the waist.

‘Oh no! I’m so sorry! Duo –‘

I interrupted her with my laughter and she let out a sharp breath of air.

‘You really _are_ an ass,’ she said ‘See if I ever worry about you again.’

She put her hand on my good shoulder and pressed close to me again, and I wrapped my arms around her in return.

‘Don’t you ever do this against me again, Duo Maxwell,’ she said before she pushed away and I let her go, wanting to apologize again, but I really thought I had apologized enough, so instead I said nothing and watched as she went off together with Treize.

‘You want us to get the car, Duo?’ Quatre asked and I shook my head, still not feeling any pain worth talking about, only some stinging, though it was quickly spreading over my back.

‘I’m fine,’ I said, and we walked back to the house. The unevenness of the sand normally didn’t bother me in the slightest, but now it felt as though I was stumbling at every step. I didn’t miss the concerned gazes from the rest of the guys, but there really was no reason for them to worry. I gritted my teeth and kept walking. I couldn’t wait to lie down flat on a bed.

When we got to the Safe house, I spotted Heero sitting by the shore, and I left the guys in order to join him in the sand. The bed would have to wait.

He was sitting with his arms on his knees, hands joined together in front. His shoulders were slumped and he looked out over the water. Zero sat close to his master, pressing against his side, and didn’t leave him even when I came.

My board was lying on the sand in front of him, and I wondered what he’d done to get it back.

‘You got my board,’ I said, sitting down next to him, pressing my thigh against his. He didn’t move away, so I thought maybe he wasn’t too upset with me.

‘Trowa did. I just brought it here.’

‘You weren’t planning on throwing it away, right?’ I asked, mostly in jest.

‘And if I were?’ he asked in such a sad voice that Zero whined and I put my hand around his back. I only winced slightly as the move pulled at the gash on my shoulder. Heero didn’t notice.

‘It would be a waste. You created it for me, and I’d fetch it just for that memory,’ I said and he sighed. ‘I really don’t mean to get into trouble, ‘Ro.’

‘I know you don’t,’ he said. ‘I was unfair.’

‘I’m still sorry, though.’

‘I thought you were dead.’

‘I _knew_ I was,’ I said, wanting to make a joke out of it. He looked at me with wide eyes, and I knew I’d said the wrong thing. Too soon.

‘Duo…’ he said with raw pain in his voice, and I moved to sit behind Heero and squeezed my leg in between him and Zero so I could wrap my arms around him. When I lifted the arm with the injuries it stung badly, so I settled for squeezing that one in around his waist, and I let the other wrap around his chest.

‘I’m here,’ I said and put my cheek against the back of his shoulder, ignoring the strain it put on my back as I stretched. ‘I’m fine. You saved me.’ A strong tremble ran through his body, and I pressed myself closer to him. ‘Please, ‘Ro, tell me what’s wrong.’

‘You almost drowning on me isn’t enough?’ he asked drily, but I didn’t answer. Instead, I squeezed my arms a little, to show him I was there, and he put a hand on mine, which I readily grabbed on to.

‘I was late in getting to you. It took me too long to see your board didn’t pop up. I knew your leash must’ve snagged on to the reef.’

‘You were just in time, though,’ I said silently, and he squeezed my hand, making me fall quiet again.

‘There was no way I was going to let you die on me. I’ve only ever lost one, I don’t intend on losing anyone else.’

He didn’t say anything else for a while, but something made me keep silent, holding him, waiting for him to wrap his head around whatever it was he was thinking about. I had a feeling it had everything to do with why he’d been so upset when finding me sleeping on the beach. And why he’d wanted to bite my head off for taking a tumble.

‘When I was younger, I joined in a lot of the competitions, and won quite a few. There wasn’t exactly a lack of offers to go pro, but… you know…’

‘I know,’ I said, remembering what he’d told me about his parents.

‘When I was seventeen, I competed together with my cousin. She fell and disappeared out of my sight. Her board came up pretty quickly, but there was no sign of her. I paddled in as fast as I could, riding the waves to get there faster. The Jet Ski was there already, but it’s against procedure to leave the Ski unattended if it can’t be done safely.’

I didn’t bother saying that he had left it unattended when diving in for me. He knew already.

‘When I came up, I dove, and I searched for her. We stayed for hours, but we couldn’t find her.’ He took a deep breath. ‘She floated ashore during the evening.’

Zero put his head on Heero’s arm then, completely focused on his master.

I felt sick. Heero hadn’t said, but there was no doubt in my mind who had found her at the water’s edge.

At least I’d known immediately that Solo had been dead. My hope had been snuffed out in a minute, Heero’s must have held on for hours, waning slowly. I couldn’t imagine what it must have felt like.

‘I resolved then to become a lifeguard. I haven’t competed since, and I don’t miss it.’

I squeezed his hand in a show of support. I didn’t want to interrupt him.

‘I couldn’t find you either, and was sure history was going to repeat itself. I haven’t lost anyone to the ocean since my cousin.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ I said, feeling that another apology wasn’t too much.

He leaned his head back against my shoulder, and I leaned my own cheek against his. My back was protesting against the position, and my arm was starting to go numb where it was squeezed in, but I ignored its.

‘I don’t blame you. If you wipeout during night again though, I’ll blame you for being a reckless ass.

‘You’re the second person to call me an ass today,’ I said, and he smiled.

‘As long as you’re my ass,’ he said after a slight hesitation and I laughed loudly, not having expected Heero to say that.

‘Absolutely,’ I answered, kissing the edge of his mouth since that was all I could reach from where I was sitting.

Heero squeezed my hand and moved forward, away from Zero and me. He got to his feet and held his hand out for me to take, and I grabbed it, letting him help me up.

As soon as I started to straighten my back, I could feel how it burnt, and I didn’t manage to hide the wince.

‘Duo?’

‘Apparently my adrenaline rush stopped keeping the pain away,’ I said, and he wrapped an arm around my waist and the other on my good shoulder.

‘Let’s get you some painkillers. It’s going to throb quite good.’

‘Arm’s way ahead of you,’ I said, feeling how my arm was throbbing angrily in time with my heartbeat as blood was flowing back to it.

‘Come on, then,’ he said, and the three of us were moving up towards the Safe house, when I hesitated.

‘Hey, ‘Ro. My board.’

‘I’ll get it,’ he said and pushed me onwards.

‘It’s not got any dings, does it?’

‘Not that I could see.’

‘Good, I’ll need it for the next round,’ I said and Heero drew a deep breath.

‘We’ll talk about it,’ he said after a moment, and I laughed. The small, affectionate smile I saw on his lips told me he wasn’t completely serious.

When we came up to the deck I grew serious. I stopped, and lifted my good arm to wrap my hand around his neck.

‘You did catch me, ‘Ro,’ I said, and he leaned in for that kiss I’d wanted since I first came up from the water.

‘I won’t let you drown,’ he said, putting his hands in the small of my back, a place I assumed was relatively free of scratches.

‘I know.’

‘I don’t even know where to touch you,’ he muttered and moved one of his hands to the back of my head and pressed me close. I leaned my head against his shoulder and brushed my lips against his neck, making him shiver delightfully.

‘I can think of a few places,’ I told him, and he let out a husky chuckle. I could feel his heartbeat against my own chest.

‘I think that can wait for a while,’ Heero said in a soft voice as he loosened his hold, letting me look into his deep blue eyes.

‘Thank you, ‘Ro.’ For saving me. For loving me.

He didn’t say anything; he simply tightened his hold again, bringing me back to be flush against him, and I was completely enveloped in his hold.

It had quickly become my favorite place to be.


	20. Lay Day

I had no trouble whatsoever when it came to falling asleep that night. It hadn’t even been night when I’d gone to sleep. It was even a stretch to call it evening. I had lay down on my stomach and fallen asleep within seconds. Going to sleep that early had the consequence that I woke up at an ungodly hour. The clock next to the bed revealed that it was shortly after two. Sometime while sleeping I had rolled onto my side and my arm was throbbing. Vaguely, I wondered if my heart had decided to temporarily dislocate itself from my chest and take up position in my arm. My back was burning and I shifted from lying on my side to lie on my stomach instead. The move made me feel the pull of the tape on my gashes and I buried my mouth in the crook of my arm to avoid making any noise that would wake Heero up.

‘Duo?’ he asked, and I groaned. I hated disturbing his sleep.

‘Sorry for waking you,’ I said against my arm.

He put his hand on my uninjured shoulder, and bushed his lips against it. ‘You didn’t.’

I lifted my head to look at him, and he averted his eyes.

‘You’ve been awake the entire time?’

‘I thought you might wake up,’ he said, eyes still averted from me, and I wasn’t sure what he was embarrassed about.

‘Thank you,’ I said with a small smile, because even if it was kind of stupid, it ranked as the most caring thing anyone had ever done for me.

His eyes finally locked onto mine, and he seemed to search my face for something. I don’t know if he found it or not, but he placed another kiss on my shoulder before he sat up in the bed.

‘Do you need another painkiller?’ he asked, and I was about to refuse when my arm reminded me of where my heart currently was, and I nodded.

‘Yeah, I probably should.’

He was prepared, because he only had to lean over the edge of the bed to pick up a bottle of water and two pills. He turned back to me, and I reached up with my good arm, but he smiled in amusement and held them away from me.

‘I think it’ll be easier if you sit up,’ he said.

‘Do I have to?’ I asked, but pushed my good arm under me, and lifted myself up slowly, wincing at the pull on my back as I bent it. This was really going to be a pain. I needed to be able to move properly.

When I was finally seated, I lifted my head and saw Heero look at me in concern. He held out the pills and the bottle without saying anything. I accepted them, popped the pills into my mouth and took a drink of the water before I handed the bottle back.

He took it, but didn’t put the cap back on. Instead, he looked at me with a steady gaze.

‘What?’ I asked, and he sighed.

‘You’ll still surf, won’t you?’ he asked, sounding dejected, and I shrugged with my good shoulder, which still made my back ache more. Even when I tried to take it easy, it had to go and remind me it was there. Which was actually better than the alternative when I thought about it.

I hesitated in giving him an answer. I could just say what I’d initially been thinking; that some scratches weren’t going to stop me, but it wasn’t quite so easy, and I figured Heero wouldn’t be entirely happy with me. My back complained with every move I made, and though I was sure I could grit my way through that my arm was throbbing painfully and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to lift it properly. It may be possible to surf without it, but I would have a hard time learning how to find my balance without it. Especially since I had to learn it in only a few hours in a worst-case scenario.

‘If my arm stops throbbing, then yeah, I’ll still surf,’ I answered and he gave a small nod.

‘I expect I’ll have to be happy with that. Lie down on your stomach again,’ he said and I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, suspicious of what he wanted to do. Not that I was adverse to the idea, but I did think I might be in for a bit more pain than I necessarily wanted.

‘What are you going to do?’

‘Quatre went into town to fulfill your prescription,’ he said and picked up a tube from the floor. ‘You’d already fallen asleep, but I want to get some of this cream on your scratches.’

I felt myself blush when I realized his intentions were completely honorable, and obediently laid back down on my stomach. I put the pillow aside and leaned my head on my good arm.

The coolness of the cream made me flinch at first contact. Heero gently spread it over the wounds, and the chill made the burning feeling slightly less noticeable. He finished applying the cream, but continued to rub gently over the uninjured areas.

‘That feels so good,’ I said to him, feeling the aches diminish under his gentle hands, and my eyes were starting to fall closed. How I hadn’t had enough sleep already was beyond me, but apparently it’s tiring to go through a near-death experience.

‘You’re stiff as a board. It was a good tumble you took,’ he said, moving his hands expertly over my legs.

‘Yeah,’ I mumbled, and I think I fell asleep pretty quickly after that.

When I woke up again, it was almost six, and I pushed myself up slowly. Heero still slept, though he started to stir when I moved, and he blearily blinked his eyes open. He turned his head slightly, noticed me sitting, and he smiled softly as his eyes focused on me.

‘Morning,’ he said, and I placed my hand on the side of his face and leaned down to kiss him. He answered readily.

‘Morning, Ro,’ I said when I pushed myself back up. He put his hand on my shoulder to help me before he also sat up.

‘How are you today?’ he asked and I rolled my arm that was still throbbing.

‘Kind of painful still,’ I said. There had been no improvement over the last few hours. I shouldn’t have expected there to be either.

‘Here,’ he said and handed me three pills, making me raise an eyebrow.

‘Antibiotics and pain killers,’ he explained and seated himself behind me on the bed, his legs on either side of me, and then he started rubbing the cream onto my back again.

I swallowed the pills and leaned forwards, putting my elbows on my knees to ease Heero’s access to my back.

‘Your arm is a bit red, but your back looks relatively good,’ he said and put his hands on my hips, placing a gentle kiss on my back. ‘Though most of your back is shredded and bruised beyond recognition.’

I chuckled at him. ‘How romantic.’

I took one of his hands and brought it to my lips. When I let it go, he continued his gentle massage until someone knocked on the door, making me groan in annoyance, and Heero chuckled.

‘Duo, they want to talk to you for the morning announcement,’ Quatre said through the door and I raised an eyebrow in surprise. That couldn’t be good.

‘Coming,’ I called and listened as Quatre walked away.

‘Wonder what they want to talk to me about,’ I said, getting off the bed, and Heero gave a small snort.

‘Probably your near drowning, don’t you think?’ he said, also getting off the bed.

‘Yeah, probably,’ I answered, distracted as I was going through what I had done with Heero when I was rescued the previous day, wondering if I’d revealed myself again. The thought made me want to hit myself, and I looked over at Heero guiltily, wondering if he could hear what I was thinking.

‘They don’t know,’ he said, his eyes narrowed and I sighed.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘I don’t mean to be like this.’

‘It’s all right, Duo,’ he said, took a hold of my good arm and pulled me in for a kiss.

‘Thanks, ‘Ro, for being patient,’ I said and he smiled softly before he turned around and picked up one of my shirts from the closet.

‘You’ll want to wear this, I think,’ he said and I grabbed it, putting it on to cover up the scratches from any curious eyes. I’d taken a good look at it in the mirror the previous day, and it didn’t look pretty. It was probably worse now, since the bruises had had time to form.

Heero, Trowa and Wufei stayed in the house while Quatre and I, together with Hilde who’d been the one to come over and tell us they wanted to interview me, took the car to Choker.

It was raining furiously, and the wind was harsh. The waves were pushing on fifteen feet and closing out at the Surf. I assumed it would be about the same at Choker, giving me hope that there would be a lay day before the contest would get started again. I needed more time to recover from my wipeout. I even went so far as to skip bringing my board, deciding that if we would surf in these conditions, I’d drop out.

G was on the beach, talking about something with the commentator. He waved when he saw me, and we walked over to them. We exchanged greetings and a bit of polite small talk before they put me in a chair in front of the camera. The commentator sat down on a chair next to me.

‘You good?’ he asked and I gave a nod. As good as I was going to get in the next few minutes anyhow.

The commentator looked straight into the camera. ‘Welcome to the dawn watch, we’re here with Reaper, who had a bit of a nasty wipeout yesterday. Tell us about it,’ he said and I launched into an explanation of what had gone down. Without any of the details regarding how I’d been feeling when I was certain I’d die. And without telling them how much I’d wanted to kiss the lifeguard that had brought me back to life.

Once that part was over, we went on to talking about the general surf at Sanc, and how stoked I was to be here, and I was relieved. There was only one mention of Heero, giving his name when saying who’d rescued me, and Solo was completely left out of it. They didn’t even mention my sudden lack of sponsors.

We spoke for ten minutes, and then the decision arrived.

Lay day.

I think I may have given a sigh of relief, because the guy interviewing me chuckled slightly.

‘That must be good for your injuries. Do you have any plans of dropping out?’

‘I’ll decide with the dawn, day by day,’ I answered with a wry smile and he nodded.

‘Fair enough. You’ve given us some awesome shows so far, I’m definitely hoping you’ll stick around.’

‘Thanks, man,’ I answered, and just like that, the interview was over. It left me with an intense feeling of relief. My wounds were aching, and I’d been on edge the entire time.

G had been standing behind the cameraman, and waved me over.

‘Good job, come with me,’ he said, and I frowned at his curtness. Usually he couldn’t stop talking. But I followed him until he stopped at the Winner Enterprises tent.

Quatre stood inside with a look of anticipation on his face. Hilde stood next to him, her recorder out, and I frowned.

‘What are you guys up to?’ I asked as I stepped into the tent and out of the rain.

‘Winner Enterprises would like to sponsor you,’ Quatre said excitedly and I felt my jaw drop, and a smile grew on my face before reality came crashing down.

‘Quat’, you know there’s going to be a lot of commotion around me once the articles come out.’ Quatre tuned down his own smile a bit.

‘I know. It’s taken some convincing with the board, but we’ll be proud to sponsor you,’ he said and I took the two steps required to get to him and embraced him tightly.

He started to wrap his arms tightly around me as well and I braced myself for the pain. He caught himself before I felt any pain, and put his hands awkwardly at my waist.

‘You’re not just doing this because you’re my friend, are you?’ I asked into his ear and he snickered as we parted.

‘No, of course not,’ he said, pretending to sound affronted. ‘You were on the list since before my father died.’

‘He wouldn’t approve, though,’ I said, and in retrospect, it might have been a cruel thing to say, but he took it well.

‘I know. He’d be turning in his grave, but you know what?’ He paused. ‘I don’t care. I spent my entire life trying to make him proud of me. I’ve decided it’s better to become proud of myself instead.’

‘You’re the best, Q’. I swear, if I was your father, I’d be the proudest.’

He laughed loudly, and Hilde giggled softly in the background.

‘I’ve got to go in for work, I’ll drop you off on the way,’ Quatre said once he’d stopped laughing and we crammed ourselves into the cab of the car again. No one was very keep on riding in the back in the pouring rain.

Five minutes later, Quatre let me off, and I turned around in the rain.

‘Hil’, you going back?

‘Yeah. Because you’re not going surfing in this, are you?’ she asked, fixating on me with a steady gaze.

‘Nah, no waves.’

‘Rest!’ she said sternly before I closed the door and watched them drive off.

It took me a moment after having gotten inside of the house to realize that the rest had gone to their jobs as well once the announcement of a lay day had been made, and I walked around for a bit, completely bored, before deciding to go visit Heero at Coral Beach.

‘Wanna go to Coral, Zee?’ I called, and the dog came running from the room Heero and I shared and skidded to a stop in front of me, making me laugh.

I gave a small shout into the shop to notify Trowa we were heading out, and then Zero and I went into the rain

There wasn’t a lot of people at the beach, but it wasn’t as empty as I’d expected. I’d known there’d be people out surfing, trying to go for the few waves that weren’t closeouts, because the ones that did break nicely were spectacular. What I hadn’t expected was the people that were jumping into the water for a swim. It was mainly teenagers that were fooling around in the big waves.

A red flag flew on the beach, and I figured the lifeguards had all holed up in the tower, so I went there and knocked. The door was opened within seconds, and Wufei looked out.

‘Hey, ‘Fei,’ I said, grinning, and he raised an eyebrow.

‘Duo,’ he said and his eyes traced me from head to toe. ‘What do you need?’

‘Just thought I’d come by and say hi,’ I said, shrugging. ‘But if you’re busy…’ I looked out over the relatively empty beach before I turned back to Wufei, and he opened the door for me to slink in.

Zero squeezed his way in in front of me, and immediately shook himself, making the four lifeguards on duty cover. Once he’d gotten everyone suitably wet, he went straight to Heero, wagging his tail.

It was nice to notice I already knew the other lifeguards on duty. Zechs and Treize sat in their seats, looking out through the window and I joined them and sat down in one of the chairs with a pair of binoculars, looking out over the water.

Heero put a towel over my head, making me chuckle.

‘You don’t want your shirt to stick to those wounds. Dry off,’ he said, and sat down next to me.

‘I should just shake it off, like Zee,’ I said, but struggled out of the shirt and began to drag the towel against my skin to get dry, when it was forcibly yanked out of my hand.

‘Hey!’ I said, reaching to get it back, but Heero held it out of my way.

‘You’re going to reopen your wounds doing it like that,’ he said and balled up the towel in his hand, span my chair around, and padded it gently against my back.

‘Thanks, ‘Ro,’ I said when he stopped and I spun back around to give him a kiss.

The teasing ‘oooh’ that came from Zechs didn’t bother me, and I blew him a raspberry. Everyone except Heero laughed loudly. Instead, he looked at me thoughtfully.

‘You okay?’ he asked, and I wasn’t sure if he meant my wounds, or if he meant the teasing. It didn’t matter, because the answer was the same. Among friends, I could take it.

‘I’m fine,’ I said, and covered his hand with mine, making him smile softly.

I love that smile, and I’d give anything to get to see it all the time.

The sudden flash of light and nearly immediate loud crack of thunder made us both flinch and turn to look over the water. The sky was almost completely black, and another flash of lightning lit everything up. The few that had still been in the water were quickly clearing out.

‘Lucky we’re not out there,’ I said and Heero frowned, looking at something far away in the water. He grabbed his binoculars and let out a small breath. The others had gone on high alert as soon as Heero had grabbed his binoculars, but when he let out his breath, they all went back to scanning other parts of the ocean.

It was amazing to see how finely tuned they were to each other. How the slightest breath out of place had the others look to see what the issue was. How a simple turn of the head could alert the rest. And how they managed to crack jokes in the middle of it.

I noticed I hadn’t let go of Heero’s hand during the entire time, and I smiled. Heero had made no move to let go either, showing I wasn’t really disrupting his work and basically telling me how much I meant to him.

We watched the lightning rage for almost three hours before the skies started to clear up, and the heavy rain retreated into a soft drizzle, and then the sun was shining. People started to trickle back onto the beach within minutes, and the guys in the tower started to move.

Feeling that I’d overstayed my welcome, I got up and gave Heero a soft kiss.

‘I’ll walk with you until the last rip,’ he said, grabbed a radio, and we walked out of the tower.

‘Quat’s going to sponsor me,’ I said as we walked, and he turned his head slightly towards me.

‘You sound unhappy.’

‘I’m not! I just don’t want to risk dragging his company down. He’s just in the starts.’

‘Duo,’ he said with a breath, and stopped walking. He kept his eyes on the water, glancing at me on occasion. ‘You’re thinking about it the wrong way. He’ll have the first company openly sponsoring a gay surfer. It will hit both ways. Some will leave, sure. But others yet will go there to show support. If I know Quatre, he doesn’t care for the ones that will leave anyways.’

I sighed.

‘You’re right, I know that. I still can’t avoid feeling a bit guilty about whatever effect it will have on his company.’

Heero put his arm over my shoulders and I was amazed at how good it felt, even though we were out in complete public.

‘It’s all speculation, Duo. If it happens, it does, but I personally think you overestimate the meaning of one surfer.’

‘Maybe,’ I said, understanding what he was saying, but not entirely convinced.

He turned his head towards me, and I was sure he was going to kiss me, but he turned back to look out over the water, his jaw set. Not making me the bastard through turning away. I was grateful.

‘Go home and get some antibiotics. I’ll help you with some of that cream when I get off,’ he said, taking his arm away from my neck, and I grabbed his hand, giving it a small squeeze before I headed off with Zero trailing me closely.

I looked back once, and he was looking intently at the water, his jaw still set as though in stone. I knew he didn’t want to make me feel guilty about the way I acted with him in public, but I couldn’t help it. Actually, it felt as though I felt guilty about everything lately, and I hated it.

Heero was right though.

I really needed to get over myself.

How much mess could one single surfer make anyways?


	21. Lull

The next two days, the weather was clear, showing the truth behind the calm after the storm. There were no waves to talk about, and lay days were called on both of them. By the end of the second day, the waves were starting to roll in again, and I wanted to get a feel for how my wounds would be able to handle surfing.

My back gave me little trouble, except for the entire thing itching like crazy as the scratches started to heal. My arm was the part that still persisted in giving me some pain. At least the throbbing had gone down during the last day, into a dull ache. Heero thought I would manage to escape infection as long as I stayed out of the water, and I’d followed his recommendation thus far, even though the temperatures had been crazy. It wasn’t easy to watch everyone else go down for a cooling swim while I had to sit on land, sweating rivers.

When the wind picked up I didn’t spend a lot of time hesitating however. I went straight out for my board and into the water. Everyone else was still at work, or possibly headed for the water, so I was completely alone out there.

The waves were rolling just over five feet, which fit me perfectly. I carved the waves and did as many turns as I could think of, and it felt fine. Sure, there was some discomfort when I moved my arm too quickly, or when I twisted for the turns, but it didn’t hurt. The sting I felt whenever the salt water hit me was possible to ignore, and I was incredibly happy to be out surfing again.

I was probably alone for an hour before I saw Alex and Mueller paddle out, and I frowned, wondering what they were doing at the Surf, but chose to ignore it and caught my wave.

They stopped paddling and were watching me, talking between themselves. I surfed passed them, and stopped thinking about it as I let the wave carry me as far as it could towards the shore. Once it disappeared I lay down on my stomach and started to paddle the rest of the way in.

It didn’t surprise me too much to find myself in between Alex and Mueller, and they paddled ahead of me to close off my path, showing me that even though I wasn’t feeling a lot of pain, I wasn’t up to my normal mobility and speed. I sat up on my board, and raised an eyebrow as I watched them sit across from me with crooked smiles.

‘You still think you have a chance?’ Alex asked with his chin high in the air.

‘About as much a chance as you do, I would expect,’ I answered, and began to push my way backwards to get away from them.

‘You’ll never have as much chance as him,’ Mueller said and shifted his board to stay in my way. He started to get on my nerves, but in the water, already slightly handicapped; I wouldn’t stand much chance against him.

‘I’ll let the points speak for themselves,’ I said, unable to completely keep from riling him up a bit more.

‘Your last round you lost with five points,’ Alex said with a raised eyebrow, looking entirely relaxed on his board with his back slightly bent. He wasn’t quite as easy to get a rise out of as Mueller was.

‘Yeah, the fall didn’t give me as many points as I’d hoped,’ I said sarcastically, and was surprised to see Alex pull his lips upwards in amusement before he suppressed it.

‘You were looking a bit like a stiff out there,’ Alex said. ‘You’ll have to step it up if you want to beat me.’

He lay down on his board and began to paddle away. Mueller however, stayed behind. I heard angry barking from the beach and leaned around Mueller to see Zero running towards the water with Heero walking quickly behind him.

Mueller sneered. ‘Your knight in shining armor is coming to rescue you again?’

I smirked as cockily as I could. ‘I don’t need rescuing from you. You seem to fail at most of the things you do.’

He narrowed his eyes. ‘We’ll see how cocky you are when Trant posts his article.’

‘Ah,’ I said in sudden understanding. Mueller had been the one to tattle on Heero and me. It made sense, especially when I saw him cast a glance over at Alex.

‘Some lingering feelings for a special someone you want to tell me about, Mueller?’ I asked, and knew I shouldn’t have when his eyes widened and his face went red in either anger or embarrassment.

I was lucky that Mueller didn’t just jump at me, but I suspected it had something to do with the call that came from Alex, and he paddled away from me with a few final words of farewell. Not very nice ones either.

I started to paddle back, and was met by Zero halfway in. The dog immediately scrambled onto my board, and I pushed myself a bit further back to give him room, before I continued to paddle in. My arm gave a twinge at the extra strain, but since that was the worse it did I decided to write it off as normal. I could still surf with it.

Heero had gone up to his knees in the water to meet me. He still had his lifeguard boardies and jacket on, and watched me worriedly when he didn’t shoot annoyed glares towards Alex and Mueller.

‘Hi, ‘Ro. How was work?’ I asked as I got off the board and pushed it along the water to let Zero ride it a bit more.

‘There were a few rescues,’ he said tersely, walking with me back towards the beach, but still glanced over his shoulder to glare at the two surfers.

‘Stop it,’ I said in amusement, and shifted my weight to push against him.

He took a step to the side before I hit him, which made me stumble and plunge straight into the water. Zero jumped off the board beside me, and Heero laughed, making me splash him with water before I got back to my feet again, and put my board under my arm.

When we were on the beach, I wrapped my arm around Heero’s back on pure instinct, and he looked at me in surprise. I didn’t realize what I’d done until then, and it felt quite good to have done it without thinking it over first. I leaned my head slightly against his shoulder before I pushed at him to get us walking up to the Safe house again. I couldn’t see his face, but I was sure he had one of those smiles on it when he put his hand around my waist.

‘We should clean your wounds out, the water isn’t good for them,’ Heero said once we got onto the deck. I turned my head to kiss him on the cheek.

‘Always the lifeguard,’ I said, took a hold of his hand, and lead him towards the bedroom.

He chuckled softly and pulled his hand out of mine.

‘I’ll be right there,’ he said and headed into the bathroom.

I looked after him for a moment before I continued into the bedroom, closely followed by Zero.

I got out of my trunks and slipped into undies instead, before I lay down on my stomach on the bed. Heero had definitely been serious about cleaning the wounds, and I’d come to rather enjoy it when he applied the ointment.

He came in with a pot of water, compresses and a cloth that he placed on the bedside table. Then he walked back to the door and let Zero out before he sat down on the back of my thighs like he had every time before.

He pulled the table closer to himself and dipped the cloth in the water before he gently dabbed it on one of the wounds. I flinched away from the first touch, not quite expecting the sting.

‘How is it this makes you flinch, but when the doctor first cleaned you up, you looked like iron man himself?’ Heero asked with laughter in his voice as he continued to gently dab the cloth against my wounds.

‘I don’t know,’ I said, thinking about it. ‘I don’t have to put up an act with you, I guess.’

He stilled, and I lifted myself up onto my elbows to look back at him. He leaned forwards and placed a gentle kiss on my shoulder.

‘You never have to pretend around me,’ he said, tracing kisses downwards, along my spine, and I shivered. A familiar heat ran down towards my nether regions, and I could feel a distinct bulge pressing against my leg as well.

I reached back with my hand and took a hold of Heero’s, and sat up at the same time as I pulled him to the side. The ocean swirled in his eyes, and I leaned over to kiss him. I pressed him onto his back, and seated myself on his thighs before I bent down and traced kisses over his abs. I smiled as I heard him groan, and he pressed himself upwards so I could feel him against my stomach.

He put his hands on my hips, but I chased him away as I started to work on unbuttoning his shorts, kissing his hipbone as it was revealed, and I pulled his clothes down until I could see him in all his glory, and I basked in it until he got impatient. He sat up and grabbed my hips with his hands, pulled me forwards again, and seized my lips with his mouth.

I’m not sure exactly how he got my underwear off, but I was soon moving on top of him, with him moaning beneath me in pure pleasure. I put my hands on his wrists when he brought his hands up to touch me and pressed them down onto the bed. I wanted this to last, and I leaned in to kiss him. He raised his hips to follow my movement, and I moaned, burying my head against his shoulder as I shuddered in pleasure. It made me loosen the grip on his wrists, and he immediately had them on my hips, helping me move against him, until both of us couldn’t hold it back anymore and we screamed our release against each other’s shoulders.

I stayed on him even as I felt him slip out of me. The slickness of his skin, the steady rise of his chest, the heavy pounding of his heart, they all made me completely comfortable right where I was. Heero’s hand was in the small of my back, gently drawing circles with his thumb.

‘I love you so much, ‘Ro,’ I said. He stopped breathing for a moment before his chest continued its steady rhythm.

‘I love you too,’ he said, moved his hand to the back of my head and guided me to his mouth for a kiss. I put my head back over his heart and his hand tracked into the small of my back again.

‘Did you know Mueller told Trant about us?’ I asked.

‘It doesn’t surprise me. Mueller always was a bit of a homophobe.’

‘Thing is, I think he’s got a crush on Alex. I kinda feel sorry for him,’ I said and Heero’s hand stilled.

‘You feel sorry for someone who tried to kill you?’ he asked, and I lifted my head off his chest to look at him in surprise. He had a wry smile on his face.

‘I figured it out,’ he said. ‘I saw him running on the beach after we’d noticed the smoke.’

‘Sorry I didn’t tell you.’

‘I’m not sure I would have told me,’ he said and leaned forwards for a kiss, which I happily gave him. I lifted my arm to put on his head, wincing as I felt it pull.

‘We should clean that again,’ Heero said in an amused voice, and I put my mouth against his chest as I groaned.

‘It’s your own fault,’ he said.

I chortled against his chest before I lifted my head up.

‘It was just as much your fault, and it was worth it,’ I said and he smiled widely.

We did a quick cleanup after our activities, and then we were back at the place where we’d started; with me on my stomach and him seated on the back of thighs, gently dabbing at the wounds. This time he actually got to apply ointment and change compress on the deeper gashes without us getting into any heavier business.

As he finished attaching the last compress, my stomach rumbled loudly, making him pause before he laughed and got off of my legs.

‘Hungry?’ he asked, and I turned to him, feeling a bit lethargic after everything, but the hunger pangs were impossible to ignore.

‘Very,’ I said, and sat up slowly, accepting the briefs Heero held out for me.

‘Let’s fix something up,’ he said and the two of us quickly got dressed and headed to the kitchen where pots of food already stood ready.

Heero silently handed me a plate and I filled it up with pasta and ham before we went outside.

We were met with four knowing smiles, and I felt myself blush.

‘You certainly seem to be feeling better,’ Sally said to me, and snickers rolled through the other three. For an instant, I wanted to hide, but then Heero’s supportive hand was on my back, and I smirked.

‘Much, thank you.’

Wufei opened his mouth to say something, but Heero picked up the conversation before him while we sat down.

‘Good, because if the wind keeps this up, Gundams will start up again tomorrow.’

‘I’m counting on it,’ I said, excited about it, and we went on discussing the upcoming heats, speculating on who would go on through to the quarterfinals. Trowa had won our heat, so he was already in it. Wufei got matched against Alex in the next round, and he would have a rough time beating him.

Quatre had sat silent, glancing my way a few times, until I got worried and extracted myself from the lively conversation to lean over the table and speak silently to Quatre.

‘Is everything ok, Q’?’

He nodded slowly, before giving a small sigh.

‘I hate asking you…’ he said, looking at me with a guilty expression.

‘Just spit it out,’ I said, and he smiled wryly.

‘Well, with the company sponsoring you, we’ll want you to use our gear,’ he said, eyes averted.

‘Yeah, that’s usually a part of the deal. I’m fine with it, just let me use ‘Ro’s board for Gundams. It’s a bit late to switch to a completely new one.’

He looked up at me with wide eyes.

‘We wouldn’t make you switch boards, though we’ll happily provide them. They did a few boardies for you, though. And a sticker for the board…’ he trailed off.

‘Q’, that’s completely fine. What were you so guilty about?’

He smiled in relief, and shook his head.

‘I thought you’d be more upset. The whole part about selling yourself…’

‘Q’, relax,’ I said with a wide smile. ‘Obviously you guys have to gain something from sponsoring me. Just give them over and I’ll wear it.’

He smiled and bent down to pick up a bag from below the table and handed it over. I laughed as he did it; of course he’d been prepared.

The conversation around the rest of the table fell quiet as well as they watched me pull the black trunks out of the bag. They were completely discreet, with the Winner logo on the bottom of the right leg, and ‘ _Reaper’_ on the waistband at the back. I chuckled softly, and Quatre looked at me with raised eyebrows.

‘Quat’, these are discreet to a fault,’ I said. ‘Is the sticker worse?’

He silently handed me the sticker, and I laughe. It was all white, and would fit nicely on the black board.

‘Q’, I swear to you, this is fine.’

‘He looked at me with a small smile and brought out another sticker, making me frown.

‘We got you a Legends sticker as well,’ Trowa said, and I stared at him and Heero in surprise.

‘I thought you didn’t sponsor pros?’

Heero shook his head. ‘My uncle always did, so I thought we could bring the tradition back. Your board is made from materials from Legends anyways. Consider yourself the exception to the rule.’

‘Damn,’ I breathed. It was completely unexpected, but it meant the world to me that I had their support. ‘Thank you, guys.’

‘You’ll be sponsored by Winner?’ Sally asked slowly, and I realized we hadn’t told any of the others yet.

‘So you’ll continue on the Pro tour next season?’ Wufei asked with a bitter undertone, and I glanced at Heero.

He looked at me with an odd smile. I wasn’t sure if he was sad and pretended to be happy, or if he was genuinely happy, in a mix of emotions. I hadn’t put so much thought into what would happen after Gundams, my honest belief had been that I wouldn’t have a sponsor anymore, in which case the Pro tour would have been out of the running anyways.

‘We’ll figure it out,’ Heero said, looking directly into my eyes, and I nodded gratefully. There was a lot we’d need to discuss, but we really didn’t need to do it in front of our friends, no matter how much we loved them.

There was an awkward silence for a while, as we ate. I bet I wasn’t the only one who wondered what I’d do. I’d been set on getting back to pro surfing without thinking of the consequences it might have on my relationship with Heero. There was a lot of travelling involved, and it could mean weeks away from each other at a time.

The shrill tone of Heero’s cell phone interrupted my thoughts and I looked at him as he answered. He frowned as the person on the other end said something, and sighed deeply.

‘There’s no chance?’ he asked, and I could hear the pain in his voice.

‘All right, thank you,’ he said and hung up the phone. He looked directly at Wufei. ‘The kid with the spinal today, his back was broken, he’s paraplegic.’

‘Shit,’ Wufei said, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Sally placed her hand on his arm, and rubbed gently.

Heero got up from his seat and started to walk away. I quickly followed him, and we walked in silence to the shore. I didn’t know what to say, so when he sat down, I simply sat down next to him, as close as I could get, and joined him in watching the ocean.

The waves were breaking close to the beach, and the whitewater retreated a few inches away from the tip of our toes. The beginning sunset behind us was coloring the clouds in the most amazing colors.

‘It’s not fair,’ Heero said, almost too quiet for me to hear him.

‘It never is,’ I said.

‘He’s twelve years old, and has less than one percent chance of walking normally again,’ he said, voice rising as he worked his way towards being angry.

‘It sucks,’ I said, because there were no answers. Heero didn’t want any answers either. He wanted to be angry at the world.

‘It does,’ he said and sighed. ‘He fell when he was surfing, and his board struck him over the back. Wufei was out there in seconds. The kid couldn’t feel a thing in his legs when he was brought it and we put him on the spinal board.’

‘You did everything you could,’ I said, wrapped an arm around him, and he leaned against me, putting his head on my shoulder.

‘I know. It doesn’t stop me from wondering if I could have done more.’

‘Why is this so different from other times?’ I asked, and kissed the top of his head. He’d gotten that call on previous occasions, once since I’d gotten to know him.

‘He’s visited the shop ever since he was seven. I sold him his first board. Trowa shaped the one he’s currently surfing on. Surfed on.’

‘Shit,’ I said, without thinking and Heero let out a soft sound in a mix between annoyance and amusement.

‘That should cover it.’

‘Sorry,’ I said, embarrassed. ‘How about we go visit the kid?’

‘Yeah. Let’s give him some time to settle in it first though,’ he said, lifted his head from my shoulder and kissed me softly, with a simple touch of his lips on mine. ‘Thank you.’

‘What for?’ I had to ask.

‘For being here,’ he said, and leaned his head on my shoulder again, and my heart beat quicker. It’s amazing how much it’s possible to love another person. I’d truly fallen all the way. I tightened my arm around him, and we stayed out there until dark fell.

I always wanted to be there for Heero.


	22. Re-entry

Despite not having gone to sleep until long after sunset, we were up with the sun and found that the waves had grown even more during the night. We had our breakfast and all of us headed off towards Choker, boards under our arms. To be fair, Heero was carrying the board I’d heisted as my back-up board from Legends. I hoped I wouldn’t have need for it, but if I went out there without a back-up, I definitely would. It’s just the way of things.

We weren’t the first ones on the beach, apparently more were expecting the competition to get going, and some were taking the chance to surf before the first heat of the day.

Wufei began to warm up, since his and Alex’s heat was the very first of the day. Hilde arrived within minutes and immediately snapped a few photos of everyone. In case someone of them won, she said.

Heero put a hand of my shoulder, making me turn towards him.

‘Be careful today,’ he said, with a small smile and I snickered.

‘I have no intention of making you save me again,’ I said and almost leaned forwards to kiss him, but caught myself as the noise from the crowds made its way to my ears. Instead I put my hand around his wrist and squeezed gently.

His eyes narrowed, and I could tell he didn’t like that I was still holding back, but still he smiled.

‘I’ll always pull you up,’ he said,but I’d rather I didn’t have to,’ he said, a teasing edge in his voice.

‘Me too,’ I said.

‘I’ll head off for the debriefing. Don’t push yourself, you’re still healing.’

‘Thanks, mum,’ I said, and almost groaned when the words left my mouth. Way to go, Duo, calling your boyfriend mum. He gave a soft laugh however, and left us to join the other volunteer lifeguards that were driving the jet skis. It seemed as though there were more of them this time, and they’d be able to have two persons on every jet ski. Seeing Zech’s sister climb up behind Heero on the jet ski made an odd feeling of discomfort flare in my chest.

‘She’s got a boyfriend,’ Sally said in my left ear.

‘So does Heero,’ Hilde said in my right ear, and I felt myself blush.

‘I’m that obvious?’

‘Only to us,’ Hilde said, and took a hold of my arm, accidentally brushing against the gash, making me flinch away from the unexpected pain.

‘Hey, I thought you had healed?’ she said, let go of my arm and rolled the t-shirt up to reveal a compress.

‘I’m fine.’ The sharp pain was over and done with as soon as she stopped touching the wound. The throbbing that had become slightly worse since the previous day however only increased. I could surf with it, no problem, but it was an annoyance.

‘You always are like this. Acting all tough,’ Hilde said and pouted slightly, before she grinned. ‘I bet you’ve been getting some TLC from Heero though.’

‘Hil’, please,’ I said.

‘Guys, Wufei’s starting,’ Sally said, bringing our attention to the water, saving me from the discomfort of talking about my love life with Hilde. I wouldn’t put it past her to have her recorder turned on in her pocket.

Wufei found some great waves out there, and was leading well into the fifteenth minute of the heat, when Alex managed to grab the biggest barrel of the heat.

‘Oh no,’ Sally said when Alex’s score was announced to be over nine, and Wufei would need to get at least eight point five in the next five minutes in order to win the heat.

A wave rolled up behind him, looking to be a nice right, and he paddled for it. He took off deep on the wave, and was quickly enveloped by the barrel, putting him out of our sights, and Sally was almost standing on her toes, trying to see.

‘It won’t help,’ I said, amused, and she exhaled forcefully.

‘I know! But –‘ She interrupted herself as we saw a dark shape in the barrel, and then the board flew up without its rider. Sally whimpered softly and I placed my hand on her shoulder.

‘I’m sure he’s fine.’

‘You weren’t,’ she snapped, and I opened my mouth to answer. I didn’t have time to say anything before I saw his head pop up. He swam over to his board and got on it immediately, making me let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding.

He paddled back out, but Alex took the next wave Wufei would have had a chance on, and then the horn sounded, indicating the end of the heat.

The disappointment Wufei felt was apparent even from so far apart. He hung his head, and his back heaved in a deep sigh. Then Heero was there to pick him up and give him a ride in to shore as the guys in the next heat went out.

As soon as Wufei got out of the water, Sally went down to greet him. The hug they gave each other made me want that. It made me want the open relationship that they had. I had it at my fingertips, with only my own insecurities stopping me from grabbing what I wanted. I knew Heero would give it to me without a second thought. He’d be thrilled actually.

Why did I care about what anyone else thought anyways? Wasn’t it Heero and I that mattered?

Wufei still looked disappointed as he joined the rest of us, and we quickly reassured him that he’d done great.

‘I shouldn’t have gone that deep though,’ he said, second-guessing himself, and I was about to set him straight when Quatre spoke instead.

‘You definitely should have. You saw a chance and you took it. If you hadn’t, your points wouldn’t have been enough to beat Alex anyways.’

I nodded. ‘What he said.’

‘I guess I know that. It’s why I did it in the first place,’ he said and narrowed his eyes. I looked to where he was watching and saw Alex and Mueller walk along the beach. ‘Whoever meets that ass next, promise you’ll beat him. He needs to get that arrogance of his screwed down a notch.’

‘What did he do now?’ I asked, curious.

‘Nothing worth talking about,’ Wufei said. ‘But for the sake of it, just agree will you?’

‘Sure,’ Trowa said, and I shrugged.

‘Of course, it’s one of the reasons I entered, after all,’ I said, and grinned widely at their exasperated looks.

‘Back up, Duo!’ Hilde said, not looking exasperated at all, but rather intrigued as she pulled her recorder out. ‘This is all a challenge between you and Alex? Man, that’s great, tell me everything!’

In the thirty minutes that followed, I told her a slightly revised version of how Alex and Mueller had come to challenge me at the Gundams. I didn’t want to put anyone in a bad light, since in the end it would reflect badly on me, so it was a bit of a sugarcoated story that I told her. But I told her about the letters I’d received while I was off, and about the fire, and took the opportunity to apologize for not answering and saying thanks to everyone via her.

Then it was getting close to being my turn, and I warmed up before I went to fetch my shirt and got out in the water. I ignored the stinging sensation from my wounds and got onto my board, paddling out quickly.

There was a lull in the waves for the first five minutes, and neither I nor my opponent attempted to make anything out of nothing. At Gundams, it’s the barrels that matter, nothing else will get you to the top scores. Had the lull been persisting much longer, we’d have had to go for the smaller waves anyhow.

Luckily, a set came in after only a couple more minutes. My opponent went directly for the first wave, paddling hard. I saw him pop up before he was lost behind the water, and I looked out over the ocean again, watching closely to find a good wave.

It didn’t look like much, but the position of the next wave was perfect, and I felt the pull of it from so far away that I knew it would hollow out nicely, and I went for it.

As soon as I popped up, I grabbed the rail of my board to keep it in the water and dropped down the wave. My stomach jumped into my chest as I flew down the face of the wave. As soon as I was down, I plunged both my hand into the wave to slow down, and the wave hugged tight around me. It was a long ride inside the barrel, and I could feel water splash on my legs from the foam ball that chased me as I did my best to get out before it.

The wave began to pinch. I pumped once more, and was spat into the clear. The wave continued, and started to break ahead of me again. Riding the exhilaration from completing the barrel, I continued into a jump and dropped down on the other side of the wave where I immediately went into a paddle to get back out to the lineup.

That was a good one for sure, and the cheers from the audience confirmed it. I spared a glance towards Heero who sat on his jet ski with a visible smile on his face as he looked directly at me. It meant more than any cheers or applauds ever would.

The points from that wave alone put me way ahead of my opponent. The rest of the waves that came in during the heat were all low scores, with the occasional bail, for both of us, and the finish was a bit anticlimactic.

When the horn sounded I paddled for the incoming wave, caught it, and rode it in to be beach on my belly. No one was there to meet me, and I caught myself looking towards my boyfriend, with a tight feeling in my chest. His gaze was on the guys surfing the parallel heat, and I sighed.

I looked towards our camp where everyone else still was, except for Trowa who had already entered the water for the first heat of the quarterfinals. Quatre watched him intently, and Hilde was snapping photographs. Wufei and Sally were also looking out over the water. They looked worried so I lifted my own gaze and couldn’t find Trowa.

I didn’t have to wait for more than a second before he popped up behind the whitewater and pulled his board in by the leash. He pulled it under himself, and immediately got off again and raised his hand for a pickup. Not until then did I notice that his board had snapped at the tip, and I ran to the camp where his backup was. Quatre had already grabbed it and headed off to the waterline, passing me on the way, so I slowed to a walk and joined the rest at the camp.

‘Duo, congrats!’ Hilde called when she noticed me, and I chuckled.

‘Now it suits you? I waited at the shoreline.’

‘If you want the meet and greet, you have to tell your sexy boyfriend to not glare at me whenever I give you a kiss,’ she said seriously, but was unable to keep her smile off her face.

‘He doesn’t,’ I said, incredulous.

‘He does, Sally said and I raised my eyebrows as I looked at Wufei, expecting him to back me up.

He held up his hands and shook his head. ‘Don’t look at me.’

‘Lot of help you are,’ I said and he rolled his eyes. ‘He doesn’t bite though, Hil’.’

‘I’m not so sure,’ Hilde mock-whispered to Sally, and she giggled as I blushed hotly.

‘Okay, fine,’ I said, and pushed my board into the sand, completely ready for a change in subject. ‘Thanks guys for all the congrats at me getting into the quarters.’

Sally laughed loudly. ‘Oh, right. Congrats Duo.’

‘It was an awesome ride, that barrel of yours,’ Wufei said, and I grinned.

‘That’s better. Thanks guys,’ I said and sat down to watch as Trowa had now gotten back out there on his new board.

Quatre came back with the broken one, and he immediately put a hand on my head and ruffled my hair a bit, making me smack his hand away.

‘Nice one, Duo,’ he said.

‘Thanks, buddy.’

Trowa paddled for another wave, caught it and got barreled by a small section for a second before his board appeared again, and the wave started to close out. He pushed into a turn and ran straight over the lip in a jump where he proceeded to twist himself and the board a full turn before he landed on the top of the wave and floated down into the whitewater.

Quatre and I shouted happily, and we all clapped our hands; it had been a beaut. With two minutes left of the heat, we were quite sure that he had it as a lull came in and they could only watch the waves go by without becoming anything worth surfing.

When the horn sounded, I grabbed a hold of Quatre and walked up to the beach where Trowa would come up, not wanting Trowa to get that feeling of abandonment that I’d gotten. Quatre resisted slightly, but then he locked eyes with Trowa, and I saw the joy in both of their faces. Quatre stopped resisting so I dropped his arm and simply watched as they hugged. Quatre slapped Trowa at the back a couple of times before they let each other go.

I grabbed Trowa’s hand, and congratulated him. I wasn’t sure he’d realized yet that he’d gotten into the semifinals because he blinked slowly before he frowned and looked towards the scoreboard. His eyes widened ever so slightly, and he let out a small breath.

‘That’s…’ he shook his head, looking like he couldn’t believe it.

‘You’re in the semi,’ Quatre said, looking into Trowa’s eyes with a small smile on his lips.

‘It’s what it says, but I can’t really believe it,’ Trowa said softly.

‘You better. You’ve beaten five pros so far,’ I said with a grin. ‘Me included.’

‘I seem to remember you beat yourself,’ he said and I let out a short laugh.

‘You sure seemed to try to take a leaf out of my book when you broke your board there.’

‘My board is easier to fix than your back.’

‘My back heals itself, your board needs assistance,’ I said and he chuckled.

‘Your back has gotten a lot of assistance, though,’ Quatre said softly, and I laughed loudly.

‘Touché, Q’,’ I said, and glanced up at the scoreboard to see that there was less than ten minutes left on the clock before my heat would start. ‘I have to go check in. See you in a bit.’

The heat in the quarters proved to be one big lull, without any waves that would work for a barrel. My opponent had taken some smaller waves, picking up points on regular maneuvers, and I realized I’d been waiting too long. There was less than ten minutes left, and I hadn’t caught a single wave.

There was nothing else to it, and I paddled hard for the next three-footer that came my way. The pressure on my arm was intense as I struggled to catch it, and I almost gave up when I felt the board take off below me, letting me pop up. I did every move I could think off on the small, but long wave, turning and twisting and just chasing points, before I finished off with a small jump over the lip.

It was a good ride, and in any other competition, I would have felt quite confident about it, but I had given priority to my opponent, and if a single wave would provide barreling opportunity, he would take it, and he would beat me soundly.

Since I had lost priority anyways, I paddled for another small wave, but the stinging and pulling in my arm was getting unbearable, and I pulled off. I’d gotten a six point seven on my last wave, and the other guy would only need a five to beat me, so I waited desperately for a higher wave.

I saw it coming, when there was less than a minute left. It was an a-frame, and we both paddled for it.

‘Left!’ he called, and we both popped up. I heard the horn but thought I’d managed to pop up before it sounded, so I drove down the wave, hit the breaks, and let the wave roll around me.

It was quick, and the section ahead slammed close just as the foam ball caught up and I threw myself off the board to save myself some hurts. The wave held me for a few seconds before I was able to resurface again, and I pulled my board in by the leash, getting back on it.

It was a slow paddle back to the beach, with my arm giving me a bit of trouble. Again, no one was at the beach to meet me, and I jogged up to our camp to find everyone staring at the scoreboard.

‘What happened with Sykes?’ I asked, pushing my board into the sand, and rolled my arm, feeling the sting in it still. If only it could stop thropping.

‘He almost got barreled for a second, but his board still showed,’ Wufei answered, everyone’s attention still on the scoreboard.

His points appeared, with a five point one, and I bent my head with a sigh as he went by me.

‘Yours are still coming, I’m sure you popped up before the horn,’ Hilde said, still focused on the board, and then she shouted and jumped on me. I caught her around her waist and looked towards the scoreboard. I’d gotten a point fifty-nine, and I was on to the semis. By about a hair’s breadth. Hilde kissed me on my cheek and I dropped her back onto the sand.

‘I thought you said you were afraid of Heero?’ I asked with a grin, still glancing towards the scoreboard to see if the points were still there or if they’d made a mistake.

‘A little competition is good for the soul,’ she answered, and hugged me tightly. I just barely managed to avoid wincing when the gash in my arm was pressed against.

When I went to the check-in to get my shirt for the semis, I met up with Broden who was going to be my opponent.

‘Hey, Maxwell, how’s it going?’

‘Better than expected,’ I said, grinning.

I was handed a blue shirt by one of the guys at the tent and I struggled my way into it, unable to lift my arm quite as high as I needed it to go. It was getting worse.

‘Hey, bro, I’m sorry about last time,’ he said when I popped out of the hole in the shirt and I chuckled.

‘No worries, buddy. I’ve been told I was stupid to try and get away from the wave.’

‘Well…’ he said slowly before he grinned widely. ‘It kinda was a bit stupid. Of course I was going to move, you had priority, I just hadn’t noticed you catch the wave.’

‘It’s all good,’ I said and grabbed my board as we walked down to the water. ‘Good luck out there.’

‘You too,’ he said, and we paddled out towards the lineup, making sure to keep out of the way from the guys still in the final heat of the quarters.

To my dismay, Alex was currently winning, which would mean that the next heat was going to be him versus Trowa.

Neither of the two in the current heat took another wave until the horn sounded and I swore internally. Usually, I didn’t care much, or anything, about who did or didn’t advance, but Alex wasn’t exactly on my list of best friends. Or even on my list of friends. So naturally, I had cheered for his opponent, even though I did not know that guy personally.

Alex paddled by where I sat on my board, and he sneered.

‘You better win this, Reaper. I want the pleasure of crushing you myself,’ he said.

‘You’ll have to get through Trowa first,’ I said, and he laughed loudly. Actually, he cackled. He cackled as he paddled back towards shore, and I shook my head.

‘Hey, bro! You ready, or what?’ Broden called and I paddled up to him. He nodded towards Alex’s retreating form. ‘What’s the deal between you and Mr. Arrogant Colonel over there?’

‘Colonel?’

‘His nickname. Don’t you listen to the commentators?’ he asked with a crooked smile and a glance my way.

‘I tend to have my own running commentary,’ I answered, and we grinned at each other. It’s easy to zone the commentators out when you’re into the action.

The horn sounded to announce the start of the heat, and we were back to business. I paddled away a bit to get into a better position, and noticed him follow me after a minute.

We both paddled for the first wave, but he had the inside, and I stopped paddling, letting him have it.

He disappeared from my sight for a few seconds before he reappeared on the shoulder of the wave. He did a small success gesture with his arm before he laid down on his board to paddle back to the lineup.

‘Felt good?’ I asked as he joined me. It was a bit of a moot question since his entire face was lit up like the sun.

‘It was the best wave of the competition,’ he said and I laughed.

‘Best wave of the competition so far,’ I said to him as I felt the next one pull me in and I went for it, leaving Broden behind.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call it the best wave of the competition, but the barrel fell around me, and I worked to get as deep as I could before I had to escape through the next exit or have the wave close out on me. I felt the spray of the whitewash on my back, and then it rolled over my board, trying to push me off. I leaned down, took a hold of the rails, and lay down flat as the water washed over me. As soon as it stopped trying to push me away, I paddled back towards the rip to let it bring me out to the lineup again.

We were luckier with the waves during the semi than I had been during quarters. There were more barrel rides, even if most of them were small or short, giving low points all around.

During the last minutes, we were almost equal in points with me at a small lead, and I held priority so I stuck close to Broden, not wanting to give him the opportunity to grab a higher score, since both of our second points after our initial barrels had been quite low.

But then a smaller wave came in during the last couple of minutes, and Broden started to paddle. I knew I’d never be able to catch the wave with my arm hurting even worse than it had been, so I let him have it.

It was a good move on my part, because the next wave was better. It was probably pushing on ten feet, and I dropped into it. To be able to stand, completely straight, inside of a barrel is an awesome, but intimidating feeling. The power that is moving all around you can take you down in a moment, and you’re surfing on the edge all the time. I brought my hand out and into the wave in order to slow down just a little more, to get deeper, but then I had to speed up as a complete section fell at once behind me and the foam ball came uncomfortably close. My heart rate was probably close to maxing out when I rode up on the wave to follow it as it pinched, and then I was out.

I think I shouted.

I know I jumped off the board with both fists shooting into the air just as I heard the sound of the horn.

I had gone far enough away in that wave that a jet ski had started to come my way. It took me a second to realize it was Heero, and I gathered my board up to sit on it until he arrived.

‘Need a ride?’ he asked with a smile on his face and sparkle in his eyes as he held his hand down for me to grab.

‘I just had the best ride, I’m not sure you’ll match up,’ I said, grinning and he laughed.

Then he had to get away from me to meet a wave before he came back, and I immediately took the hand that he offered, getting myself on the pad. Zech’s sister was still sitting on the back of the jet ski, so I couldn’t say everything I wanted to Heero, and I settled for holding on to his hand just a bit longer than necessary for getting me into position.

He dropped me off by the shore and gave me a proud look, and a good luck for the finals before he went back out again, and I was again struck by how much I wanted to hold him, touch him, _kiss_ him. All the adrenaline that flowed through my body after that wave probably had something to do with it, but I think it was more than that. It was love. Pure and simple love. I wanted him with me, near me. I wanted to hold him, and I wanted him to hold me.

When I got up on the beach this time, everyone surrounded me, except Quatre who was probably watching Trowa’s hear that had started after ours. The organizers of the competition met me, asking for an immediate interview, and I followed them up to the podium after I’d given everyone a hug.

‘Duo Maxwell, how do you feel now, having gone all the way to the finals?’

‘I’m stoked to get there. I’m not sure I believe it yet, you sure they got the points all right?’ I asked and gave a look towards the scoreboard.

‘Completely sure. We’re all impressed that you’ve gotten this far despite the extensive damage we saw done to your back just a few days ago.’

‘My back’s fine, your shirt was worse off, really,’ I said, going for cheerful even though I was a bit uncomfortable talking about my injuries. I’d really rather put focus on the last wave I’d caught.

‘Indeed. You got a nine point eighty-three for your last wave, congratulations for that one, and congratulations to your advancement to the finals.’

‘Thanks,’ I said and jumped off the podium where I was met with more reporters.

‘Sorry everyone, Surf’d has an exclusive on this one,’ I heard Hilde’s voice from beyond the crowd, and I pushed through to get to her, and go back to our camp.

Trowa was under Alex in points, and there was a lull in the waves.

It was almost possible to touch the frustration I saw in Wufei’s face, and again I wondered what Alex had said to him when they’d paddled back.

‘Duo, where’s G?’ Quatre asked with a frown, and I could tell he’d been wondering about it for a while.

‘He should be around,’ I said and made a motion with my hand to indicate the crowd. ‘He’s never where I am during the competition.’

I used to think it was because he was shy, but now I was wondering if it wasn’t because he didn’t want anyone to recognize him as Pestilence. I still had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that he and Howard were two of the greatest surfers to ever have walked the planet.

The horn sounded to indicate the end of the heat and Wufei swore loudly.

‘Beat him soundly, Maxwell,’ he said and I laughed.

‘I’ll do my best.’

‘It better be good enough,’ he muttered and I frowned.

‘Just what did he say out there?’ I asked, suspicious. He sighed and gave a small shake of his head.

‘It doesn’t matter. Just win.’

‘Oookay,’ I said, but grabbed my board and headed away a bit to warm up again. The finals would be on twenty minutes after their heat had ended, and I wanted to be back out in the water before then.

I went in just as Trowa came up and he grabbed my arm, making me wince as he put his hand right above my gash. He let go quickly, as though he’d been burnt.

‘Sorry,’ he muttered, but then locked his eyes with mine, and I could see an angry fire burning there that I’d never seen in Trowa before. ‘Beat him,’ he said, and I could only nod before he headed up, and I followed him with my gaze.

Everything in his body language spoke of anger. The set of his shoulders, the stomping stride, and the way his knuckles whitened as he held tightly to the board.

Trowa is a calm guy. I’d never seen him that angry before, and I doubted that simply losing a heat could do that, so I could only assume Alex had said something to him as well, like he had with Wufei.

I hoped I wouldn’t disappoint them.


	23. Perfect Ten

Alex and I paddled out to the lineup side by side. I did the best I could to ignore him as he taunted me about my slow paddle. My arm did bother me, but that wasn’t the main reason I was going slow. I wanted him to get tired of it and just head off at his normal pace and leave me alone.

‘What the hell did you tell Trowa and Wufei anyways?’ I asked him and he laughed. Nothing in his laughter was kind or joyful, and he was only doing it to taunt me more.

‘You’ll find out when you lose,’ he answered with a smug smile, and I rolled my eyes.

‘You’re assuming too much.’

‘That’s what they said,’ he said, and finally sped up his paddling.

Pretty soon he was far ahead of me, and I could speed up my own paddle to get into position when the horn blared to announce the start of the heat.

Not only to announce the start of the heat, but the start of the finals of the most prestigious competition in surfing. And I was in it. I’d never even dreamt of going so far.

Alex caught the first wave minutes into the heat as a set came in, and I went for the next one.

The waves had gotten consistently larger after my heat in the semis. The first one I caught in the finals was definitely on par with the last wave I’d gotten in the semis.

The drop was steep, and I pushed against the wave to force the board to keep contact with to water in what would otherwise had become an eleven foot free-fall into the reef.

It terrified me.

It excited me!

The water roared as it wrapped around me, and shut out all other sound. The beach was hidden from my vision, and all I could see was water and the horizon through falling water drops. I let it all disappear. I let the wave steal reality away until I was one with the water.

When a section ahead of me stayed open just long enough for me to get out, my mind screamed at me to take the chance, but I didn’t want to let it go. I wanted to stay with this feeling, and in that moment of hesitation I lost my chance and the section closed.

The spray from the foam behind me egged me on, and pushed me to go faster. It worked me towards my limit as I raced towards the opening that was about to become smaller. I hunched down as I travelled along the water, and the spraying water from the foam ball caught up with me and spat me out through the small opening that was still there.

I stood up straight and turned back in amazement to watch the whitewater settle, with an overwhelming urge to give thanks to the water for letting me ride it. More than that, I wanted to thank it for letting me out, for staying with me unto the end. The board began to sink under the surface as it lost its speed, and I dropped down to sit on it.

If ever I had ridden a perfect wave, this was it.

The roar I could hear then wasn’t from the ocean, and I was pulled away from my thoughts to look towards the beach. It took a moment for me to realize what the crowd was doing there, to remember that I was competing, to understand that I had to get back to the lineup and get one more wave.

On another day, I would have stopped there. I would have gone home and been lyrical about the ride I’d just had. But if I did, Alex would win. If I did, I would disappoint Wufei and Trowa for not even trying. More than that, I couldn’t disappoint myself like that.

I looked towards the scoreboard, and squinted to see what it said.

Perfect ten.

For both of us.

Not even that would ruin my mood. Even if I’d gotten less than a ten, I wouldn’t have cared. I knew it had been the perfect wave, and that was all that mattered.

I duck dived under an oncoming wave, and headed back into position. Alex was already there, probably having had more presence of mind after his wave than I’d had after mine.

‘You’re not making it easy,’ Alex said, and smiled wryly. ‘I like it.’

‘I don’t particularly care. I’m not doing it for you.’

‘You wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for me,’ he said, eyes narrowed.

‘I have my reasons,’ I answered and brushed my thumb against the pendant at my neck. Even if Alex and Mueller hadn’t challenged me to Rift Wars, I would have gone, I was sure of it. I would have gone for Solo. I would have gone because he would have hated it if I hadn’t. He’s a much better motivator than Alex or Mueller ever could be.

‘You need a reason other than the money? I heard Winner stepped in to sponsor you, must be nice with a billionaire as a friend,’ he said.

‘If you only surf for the money, I feel sorry for you,’ I said as I watched the next wave intently. It wasn’t perfect, but I decided it was good enough, and I paddled for it. More to get away from Alex than that the wave had potential.

It still gave me a sweet ride, though without a barrel. It wouldn’t bring high points, but I was satisfied. I’d achieved my main goal, and when I paddled back to the lineup, Alex was on another wave, which fit me perfectly. If I could spend the rest of the heat without another exchange of words with Alex, I’d be thrilled.

My score for the last wave was called at a three, not surprising me in the slightest. Without a barrel, the points simply didn’t go that high. Soon enough, Alex’s score was called at eight point three, which meant I needed eight point thirty-one to win the finals.

‘Beat that,’ he said as he came back, and I smirked. I hadn’t thought I’d be able to go the heat without hearing his voice again anyways. It had been a futile wish.

‘We have five minutes left, you sure you want to get complacent?’ I asked.

‘Don’t worry about me,’ he said with a smug smile, and I narrowed my eyes. What was he up to now?

There was a lull in the waves, and I was beginning to get worried when I finally saw a set roll in. I let the first one go, and was surprised to see Alex let it go as well. I had priority, so he wouldn’t be able to stop me from catching a wave, and if they called interference on him, he would lose. If I had been him, I would have taken it.

I lay down on the board and paddled for the next wave that towered into a high wall behind me. It surely pushed on fifteen feet.

Alex paddled next to me, on my right side, where I’d intended to go once dropping into the wave.

‘I’m going right!’ I called for him, and I knew he heard because that annoying smirk appeared on his lips, but he didn’t back off.

He wouldn’t.

It was a split second decision, and I didn’t back off either. I took a final, powerful stroke and we were committed.

I felt my stomach and heart try to climb their way out of my throat as I popped up and dropped down the wave in a turn towards the right, setting myself up to go as deep as possible. I kept half an eye on Alex as he still paddled above me to catch the wave.

The board shivered beneath my feet as I struggled to keep its fins in the water. The speed that I built up from the drop was incredible, and as soon as I’d set up a nice line for the barrel, I hit the breaks.

It was lucky I did, or I would have run straight into Alex as he dropped down the face of the wave.

‘Get out!’ I called and the wave enveloped us both in a tube.

‘Where?’ he asked in a high-pitched voice.

I had no answer for him. The power of the wave was incredible, and a bail, or a wipeout on it wouldn’t be a pretty one. We were only a couple of feet above the reef. It was exhilarating, and I think I laughed.

I pressed my hand into the water, slowing down a bit more, falling further behind from Alex. Though I say further behind, it wouldn’t have been much more than two feet distance between our boards if we’d been on the same line. I kept myself high, and slowed down as much as I could.

Alex on the other hand pumped to get out faster, and I knew he was scared out of his wits. For my part, this was what I lived for. That feeling, the rush I got from riding the power of the ocean.

I couldn’t lose. If he got out, but I didn’t, they would call interference and they’d only could one of his points for the final score rather than two. If we both got out, I was sure to get a high score. Of course, I aimed to get out, but no matter what, Alex wouldn’t win. I wouldn’t disappoint anyone. I could enjoy the wave for what it was, without any pressure, except for the one of getting out alive.

I know I laughed then. Possibly, it had a bit of a manic edge to it.

Alex veered out through an opening ahead that closed before I got to it. I pumped to get my speed back up, and was almost pulled up with the wave, but I pushed down and managed to keep my balance. It brought my heart to my throat and adrenaline pumped through my veins.

I caught up with the break, but right then, right there, I knew I could make one more section, and I let it fall around me after giving a small wave towards the beach. I sped up again, and reveled in the indescribable force that was all around me, empowering me.

The wave opened again, and there would be no more chances.

I slipped out and the whitewater pressed me away as the wave fell in on itself behind me.

I shouted in joy. What were the chances of rolling two such waves in a heat? If anything, that one had been better than the first.

I was about to paddle back out when the horn sounded, and a deafening roar came out over the water.

The crowd was on their feet, cheering loudly, and I lifted my hands over my head, a wide grin on my face, listening as the roar became louder. My heart thundered in my ears, joining with the sound of the crowd, and the soaring of the water. It was the heartbeat of the ocean, punctuated by the waves.

‘You’re all right, Reaper,’ Alex called from a bit away, and I forgot everything.

‘What?’ I asked, confused.

‘Don’t make me say it again,’ he said with a roll of his eyes. ‘I don’t like you, but you’re a good surfer.’

‘Thanks?’ I said, flabbergasted at the turn of events, and I wanted to question him further, but he was already paddling towards the beach again.

When I came in, everyone came to me, and I tried to hug all of them at the same time.

‘You did it,’ Wufei said, and Trowa squeezed my shoulder tightly.

‘Was there any doubt?’ I asked, smirking and doing my absolute best to pretend I’d been completely self-confident the entire time.

‘There’s always doubt where you are concerned, Duo,’ Hilde said and I brought a hand to my heart.

‘You wound me so, Hil’. I had to warrant your four-page spread somehow.’

‘You did it for me, then?’ she asked, her eyebrows raised.

‘You don’t believe –‘ I was grabbed around my thighs by Trowa and Wufei and was lifted up to sit on their shoulders. ‘Hey!’ I placed my hands on their shoulders to keep my balance as they started to walk up towards the podium.

I looked behind me to see Quatre carry my board, and he gave me a wink. I smiled broadly and winked back before I turned forwards again and let go of Trowa to point ahead of us, towards the podium where they were already heading.

‘Onwards, my loyal steeds,’ I said in a loud voice to make myself heard.

‘I swear I’ll drop you,’ Wufei said with a grumble and I laughed. I only just managed to avoid giving him a pat on his head to see if he would make real of his threat.

There was only one thing missing. Person, actually. I looked back again to see everyone on the jet skis coming back in, and my heart settled when I saw Heero out there.

I leaned forwards to get off of their shoulders and onto the podium in one swift movement. I gave them all hugs again before Quatre handed me my board and a hand showed up next to me. I grabbed it and let it help me to my feet before I bent down to gather up my board. My arm complained with a sharp twinge, surprising me, since I hadn’t felt any pain at all during the finals. I shifted my hold on the board and placed it behind me, making sure that the Winner and Legends stickers showed.

‘Duo, you just won Gundams with a perfect heat score. The first ever to do so. How do you feel?’ the interviewer asked and I let out a breath.

‘It was my first ten ever. To have gotten two in the same heat is surreal. My blood is still pumping.’

‘I can imagine that,’ he said and I let my eyes travel out over the crowd to see Heero stand right outside of it, watching me with a small smile. I shot of a grin in his direction, but he only lifted his hand ever so slightly, making me frown.

Had I done this? Had I made him hesitate to come up to me?

‘Duo?’

‘Sorry?’ I said, shaking myself out of my thoughts as I focused on the interviewer again.

‘I’ll let you go and get your trophy. Congratulations,’ he said, and I grinned.

‘Thanks, buddy,’ I said, and grabbed my board once more as I was shown to the side, to another platform, where I was presented with the trophy, and a huge check.

To be honest, I can’t begin to retell what went on. I don’t really remember. I answered questions, and I took photos, and I probably wrote some signatures. But my focus was on Heero the entire time.

His smile was proud, but he looked sad. When another interviewer hailed me, I saw Heero turn, about to leave, and I panicked.

I shoved my winnings into Quatre’s arms, my board fell into Trowa’s, and I ran. The crowd split down the middle, giving me a clear path, and I called out.

‘Heero!’

He froze, and turned around with a confused look. He looked at me, then over my shoulder, and then at me again.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, and I let out a laugh in disbelief.

‘What’s wrong, you ask? You were leaving.’

‘I thought…’ he swallowed. ‘I would congratulate you properly at home.’

‘Congratulate me here,’ I said, and he fixed his gaze on me, eyes narrowed.

‘Really?’ he asked.

‘I’ve been longing to kiss you the entire day. Will you let me?’

My heart was beating quicker then than it had out in the water, as I waited for Heero to respond. He didn’t, but he turned his palms my way, in an open invitation, and I took the step required to reach him.

Our arms wrapped around each other, and a hand snaked its way to my neck in the same way that my own hand travelled up to the back of Heero’s head and our lips merged together.

There was no one else in that moment. There was only the feel of Heero’s body against mine. The press of his soft lips on mine. We were alone.

We separated and leaned our foreheads together.

‘I love you,’ he said.

‘Love you too,’ I answered, and we hugged tightly.

The illusion could only hold for so long, and the soaring buzz from the crowd reached my ears. But then there was applause, and my eyes widened as I let myself look back.

Our friends were at the front, applauding the loudest, but several others had joined in. People I didn’t know, and some that I did know.

‘Go, Duo!’ Broden called, and I looked towards him.

He had a wide grin on his face and gave me a wink that I could only reply to with a smile.

‘What’s going on?’ I asked Heero silently and felt more than heard him chuckle.

‘The world is changing,’ he said, and I finally believed him.

Everything had already changed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've gotten a long way, and are coming in on the homestretch ("only" 5-6 chapters left) :D I hope you're enjoying it thus far :)
> 
> I'm going away for a while and won't have any internet. Expect the next chapter on Monday 28th (UTC+1).


	24. Trim

‘I’m sorry,’ I said to Heero, for what felt like the umpteenth time as he pressed ignore on another call.

‘Stop apologizing,’ he said, with a tone of exasperation I wasn’t sure whether it was aimed at the caller or me.

‘I have no idea how they all got your phone number,’ I said and he turned to me with an amused smile and raised eyebrows.

‘They probably found it in the phone book.’

‘Oh, yeah,’ I said and chuckled softly. ‘I guess they couldn’t find my number.’ Personally, I had never been happier that I didn’t own a cell phone.

‘At least I know what to get you for your birthday,’ he said.

‘Another board?’ I asked in feign ignorance, with a teasing grin.

‘I thought Quatre was taking care of that?’ he asked, humoring me.

‘Well, your shop is sponsoring me as well, right?’

‘You just like having a Legends sticker on your board.’

‘I do,’ I said with a wide grin, going along with his teasing before I tuned my grin down into a smile. ‘But I like that you’ve made it even more. It’s like you’re with me.’

‘I _am_ with you,’ he said and wrapped his arms around me.

I tensed slightly as the pain in my arm made itself known again. I was getting a bit worried about it since I hadn’t even used it during the last couple of hours. It had been on its best behavior during the finals, but after everything had cooled off, it was as though it was trying to make up for lost time. I looked at where Heero’s arm rested against mine and frowned as I realized he wasn’t anywhere near the wound, but it still felt sore.

‘You all right?’ he asked, loosening his grip, but I caught his hands before he let me go completely, and wrapped them around me again. It was easy to ignore the pain for the feeling of bliss I got in Heero’s arms. I leaned back against him and he pressed a kiss against the side of my neck.

‘I’m fine.’

‘You sure? You feel a bit warm,’ he said and moved his hand to rest against the back of my neck.

‘It’s from being so close to you,’ I said, and he laughed.

‘You seem to have that effect on me as well,’ he said and I turned around in his arms to capture his lips in a kiss.

We broke apart when someone cleared their throat behind Heero, and I peeked over his shoulder to see Trowa standing with am amused smile on his face.

‘I’m not giving you any applause this time,’ he said and I laughed.

Heero turned to face Trowa as well and I took a hold of his hand.

‘Good, I got enough of that hours ago,’ I said.

‘Heero, there’s someone that wants to meet you in the shop,’ Trowa said and Heero nodded.

‘I’m coming,’ he said and gave my hand a small squeeze. I reluctantly go of and he headed off into the shop.

Trowa went up to stand by the railing, and I joined him.

‘It’s not a reporter, is it?’ I asked, and he shook his head.

‘I wouldn’t come get him for a reporter. It’s Kip’s father.’

‘Kip?’

‘The kid that got paralyzed.’

‘Shit,’ I said, and looked towards the shop, as though I could see through the wall. Unfortunately, I lack x-ray vision, and couldn’t see how Heero handled it. I was unsure whether or not to go in there and give him my support.

‘I saw him at Gundams earlier, I think he was filming it for the kid,’ Trowa said. ‘He’s always been a huge fan of the competition. He has to be so bummed that he missed your perfect heat.’

‘He didn’t miss much,’ I said, and Trowa turned his head to stare at me.

‘You’re kidding, right? Everyone was on their feet as you took that last wave.’

‘I’d already won when Alex decided not to veer out. Getting to ride that wave to the end was just a bonus,’ I said and he laughed.

‘I doubt too many thought about the potential interference call as they held their breath to see if either of you were going to escape that monster.’

‘Oh, yeah,’ I said and shivered. It had been a monster, but I hadn’t been afraid. Respectful of its power, but never afraid. Another chill went through me and I wrapped my arms around me. The skin on my arm felt tense. Hard. It was a lot more swollen than it had been just hours before.

‘Duo?’ Heero asked from the door, and I looked back at him with a smile. ‘Wufei and I are heading off to visit Kip.’

‘Sure. Do you want me to come along?’ I asked and fought off another shiver.

‘We’ll be fine,’ he said, and gave me what he probably thought was a reassuring smile. But it was crooked, and somewhat hesitant, and I knew he was worried about visiting the kid, so it didn’t reassure me in the slightest.

‘You sure?’

‘Yea –‘

‘Sorry, is that Reaper?’ someone asked from behind Heero and I tensed. I hadn’t spoken to any reporter except Hilde after the kiss with Heero, and I wasn’t ready to talk to anyone else. I knew G was handling most of the drama, but some reporters probably weren’t beyond coming to look for me.

‘It is,’ Heero answered, and I frowned as he stepped through the door to let a man walk through and come onto the deck.

‘Sorry, Mr. Maxwell. My son is a huge fan of yours, would you mind giving him a signature?’

I blinked once before I tuned up my grin. This had to be Kip’s father.

‘Sure. Do you have anything for me to write on?’ I asked, and his face fell. ‘Don’t worry, buddy. I’m sure we’ve got something.’

‘How about a shirt from the shop?’ Trowa asked, and Heero nodded before they all headed back in together with Kip’s dad.

I leaned back against the railing and winced in pain when I lifted my right arm to lean on it. I rolled my sleeve up a bit to reveal skin that was an angry red. The red showed outside of the edges of the compress that covered the wound. How quickly could an infection spread anyways? Could I still nip it in the bud?

When I thought about it, it probably wasn’t new. It had been aching more and more during the entire day, but I’d thought it had simply been the additional strain from the paddling.

We hadn’t gotten to clean it out yet after the competition, which in retrospect probably should have been done immediately. I probably should have cleaned it after every heat even.

I rolled the sleeve back down only moments before everyone came back out together with Wufei as well. Heero gave me the shirt, which I accepted with my left hand and laid down on the table. Wufei held out a marker and I grabbed it with my right hand, but dropped it when an unexpected flare of pain shot up through my nerves as I closed my fingers around it.

‘Sorry,’ I said, and bent down for it, forcing myself to hold it properly despite the ache. It was easier when I was prepared for it.

Heero stretched out the edges of the shirt, and I quickly signed it before I transferred the marker to my left hand and handed it back to Wufei so he could put the cap back on.

‘Thank you,’ Kip’s dad said and I shook my head.

‘No worries, buddy. I’ll happily visit him if…’ if he still wants to see me after watching the news broadcast of today’s sideshow. I didn’t say it out loud, but Heero looked at me with a worried gaze, and I thought he might understand. Then I felt guilty of even thinking of it as a sideshow. I gave Heero a look and he smiled softly.

‘I’m sure he’d love to meet you when he’s a bit stronger,’ Kip’s father said and I nodded.

‘Sure. I’ll be here or in the ocean,’ I said and gave him a grin. ‘Give the kid my best.’

‘Thanks again,’ he said and turned to leave.

Heero grabbed the shirt and leaned in for a kiss that I happily gave him.

‘Call if you need anything,’ I said, and he chuckled silently.

‘To which phone?’ he asked and I rolled my eyes.

‘I’ll be around,’ Trowa said, and Heero nodded before he looked at me and frowned.

‘Duo, can you clean your wounds on your own for now? I’ll help when I get back, but you should do it as soon as possible.’

‘Yeah, I’ll be fine,’ I said, and he walked through the door with Wufei and Kip’s father.

‘You look pale,’ Trowa said once Heero was out of earshot, and I smiled.

‘I haven’t been drinking much today. It’s probably just some heat exhaustion,’ I said, wishing it to be true, even though I knew it wasn’t. I’d gotten infected by reefs before however, and the tense feeling and the swelling of my arm were quite good indicators that that was the case here.

‘You need any help?’ he asked, and I shook my head.

‘I’ll just drink some water and grab a shower. No worries, get back to fixing your board.’

‘All right,’ he said, and we both headed inside to the kitchen, with him carrying on into the shop and I reached for a glass.

Without thinking, I grabbed it with my right hand, and pulled it back. As soon as I had to lift the weight off the shelf, the pain shot up in my arm and it took everything I had to keep the glass in my hand until I managed to transfer it to my left.

What the hell was this? It’s not like it was my first infected wound. But never before had it been quite this debilitating or painful.

I quickly downed my glass of water as well as an aspirin before I went to the shower. Once there, I was able to get a better look at my arm after I removed the compress.

It was a hot mess. Pus seeped out at the edges. Where I had thought it had been healing, it seemed as though it was being ripped open by the swelling. Around the wound, the skin was so stretched it shone in an angry red hue.

I moved my left hand to touch it, and gritted my teeth against the pain of the first touch. It burnt. Not only from the pain, but it was hot to the touch as well.

I sat down on the toilet seat and rummaged around in the cabinets for a bit before I found the saline solution and the antibiotic cream. Then I clenched my jaw again to keep from screaming as I poured the liquid over the wound, and padded it with a cloth. The cloth was white initially, and a single touch to the wound had it come away with spots of yellow and red. It made me feel sick.

I wasn’t sure how it could have gotten so bad in a single day, but I had missed taking the medicine, as wrapped up in the competition as I had been.

Something started scratching outside of the door to the bathroom, but not until I heard the whining did I understand that it was Zero.

‘I’ll be out in a few, boy,’ I said, and he whined louder, but at least the scratching stopped.

I wiped the wound a bit more before I got into the shower, turning the heat on high since it was cold, and then down to freezing because my arm was on fire. It didn’t numb it in the slightest and I went back out of the shower to rinse the wound again. I carefully applied the antibiotic cream, and had to swallow down bile more than once. It was easy to attribute the need to vomit with the pain and the general vileness of the wound.

As soon as I opened the door, I was accosted by Zero who pressed his nose against my hand. He followed me closely as I went into our room, and I sat down on the bed, feeling incredibly drowsy.

In retrospect, I should have gone to fetch Trowa at that point. I should have told him I was sick, and we should have gone to the doctors. The thought never crossed my mind.

Originally, I had planned on heading back out to surf, but I didn’t think I had the strength for it. My eyelids were dropping, and I leaned over to rest my head on the pillow. I shivered, feeling as though I was cold down to the bone, and pulled the blankets over me. Zero jumped onto the bed, and I pressed close to his warm fur, burying my hands under his belly. Not even the warmth made me feel better.

A firm pressure against my hand woke me up, and something wet ran over my hand. I struggled out of sleep, and forced my eyes to open a crack to see Heero stand above me, two of his fingers pressed against my wrist, his brows furrowed tightly together as he looked at the clock on the wall. Zero stopped licking on my hand and sat down next to the bed.

‘Hey,’ I said and smiled at Heero.

He released the pressure against my wrist and turned his head slightly to look at me instead of the clock.

‘Hey,’ he said, brows still furrowed, but with a small smile. He looked worried. ‘How do you feel?’

‘Cold,’ I answered and pulled up my hand from beside the bed to hide it under the blanket instead. Zero followed, and he put his head on the bed, making me wonder when he’d gotten off it. He hadn’t woken me up.

‘You have a fever,’ Heero said and sat down on the bed, putting his hand on my hip.

‘I’m fine,’ I said, and my eyes started to drop close again.

‘Your wound’s infected, we need to get you to the hospital.’

‘You were just there,’ I said, frowning, not quite understanding what he was talking about.

‘I’ll go again. Do you think you can get dressed?’

‘Why?’

‘Do you want to be naked in the hospital?’ he asked, and I shook my head.

‘Why hospital? I’ll stay here, you go,’ I murmured, and he chuckled softly.

‘It doesn’t work that way, Duo,’ he said and rubbed his hand gently over my hip. ‘I’ll be right back, I’m calling an ambulance.’

‘What?’ I asked, coming fully awake, and struggled to sit up in the bed, fighting against lethargic limbs. Heero reached to help me, and when I sat safely with my back against the wall, I wrapped the blanket around me again.

‘I think you have blood poisoning. It’s better if they can take you,’ he said, and didn’t give me a chance to object further as he left the room.

‘I’m fine,’ I mumbled to Zero who looked at me intently.

But I wasn’t fine. My arm was in constant pain, and when I looked at it, the redness had travelled even further, and seemed to be tracking its way towards my chest.

Heero’s words about me going to hospital naked came back to me, and I slowly edged my way off the bed. It felt as though my own body wouldn’t obey me anymore and Heero came back just in time to see me fall to the floor when I tried to put some weight on my feet.

Zero was immediately at my side, licking my face, in the time it had taken Heero to get about halfway to me.

‘Duo!’ he said, and sat down on his knees in front of me, putting his hand behind my neck.

‘I’m f–‘

‘Don’t you dare tell me you’re fine,’ he said, looking directly into my eyes. ‘I’ll help you dress, but we’re going to the hospital. Now.’

‘Ambulance?’

‘They’re off on other calls. We’re driving in,’ he said and got up to fetch clothes.

Between the two of us, we got me seated on the edge of the bed, and I even got dressed without falling on my face again. The shirt was impossible to get on completely without hurting my arm even more, so we settled for just poking my head and other arm out of it. I cradled my aching arm under the shirt with my hand.

‘I can walk,’ I told Heero when he looked at me with tight lips and a frown.

‘I can get a surfboard, and we can carry you out,’ he said, quirking his lips a little to tell me knew how ridiculous it sounded. I smiled for him.

‘Just help me and we’ll be fine,’ I said, let go of my arm, and put my good one around his shoulders when he sat down next to me on the bed.

The arm he wrapped around my back pulled awkwardly at my loose hair. I frowned.

‘’Ro, wait.’ I pulled away from him, not about to go out with my hair untied.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘My hair. I can’t…’ I tapered off, realizing I was being silly. Realizing I wouldn’t be able to braid it anyways.

But Heero leaned over me to grab my brush and sat down behind me.

‘I think we can spare five minutes if you think you can stay seated on your own for a bit,’ he said and ran the brush gently through my hair.

I managed it for about a minute before I felt myself start to slump down. Shivers ran through me again. Heero pushed my hair to the side and pressed himself closer to me. I leaned back against him, turned my head to the side and closed my eyes as he wrapped his arms around me to continue the braiding from there. However careful he was, he couldn’t avoid brushing against my arm, but I didn’t care. I was so tired. So cold.

‘Done,’ he said softly into my ear.

I opened my eyes again and gave a small sigh, but burrowed closer against his chest.

‘Let’s just call a doctor? Don’t wanna move.’

‘I know you don’t. I doubt many doctors have their clinics open Friday evenings however. Come on, I’ll help you.’

I stopped leaning against him, feeling the loss of his warmth against my back. He slipped away from behind me and moved around so he stood in front of me instead. He had a stabilizing hand on my shoulder the entire time. We wrapped our arms around each other again, and got off of the bed. The world started to move without my say so as soon as I stood up. I’m pretty sure Heero had to hold up all of my weight for a moment, until the world stabilized again.

‘You ok?’

‘Yeah, I’m back,’ I murmured.

We took of first slow step to get out of the room. Zero followed close behind, with his nose pressed against the back of my leg as though trying to support me. The thought made me chuckle.

‘Where’s the rest,’ I asked once we’d managed to make our way to the car and I was buckling up in the passenger seat.

‘Quatre and Trowa have a date, and I dropped Wufei off at Sally’s before I came back here.’ Heero sat down in the driver’s seat and fired the ignition.

‘Sorry.’ I leaned back, putting my head on the headrest, and leaned my entire body to the left, trying to keep from touching anything with my right arm.

‘What for?’

He drove out onto the street. The movement of the car shot streaks of pain through my arm. I closed my eyes tightly, trying to think about something else as I focused on breathing through it.

‘Making you drive back again.’

‘It’s fine,’ he said.

His hand covered mine, and I grabbed onto it like a lifeline. I was starting to feel really nauseous.

‘Sorry.’

‘Stop it!’ he said, squeezing my hand.

‘Just… a fever. Shouldn’t feel so off,’ I muttered. I’d had infected wounds before. I’d had fevers before as well. But I’d never before felt so incredibly weak from any one of them.

‘Duo, don’t worry about it. We’ll find out what’s wrong.’

‘Feels overdone, is all. Overreacting,’ I mumbled as I pushed down the urge to vomit once more. ‘’Ro, stop.’

He hit the breaks on the car. I opened the door before we were at a complete stop and leaned out, vomiting.

Heero’s hand rested on my back, drawing idle circles as I heaved. It was probably lucky I hadn’t eaten much that day or I would have stayed hunched over, puking my guts out for the rest of the night.

When I thought I might be done, I put my head between my legs, still hanging out from the door, pushing the seatbelt to its limits. Heero’s hand disappeared, and I wasn’t surprised when he was in front of me.

‘Don’t step in that,’ I said wryly, peeking up at him between my bangs.

‘At least you’re not apologizing,’ he said, and put a hand on my shoulder.

‘Sorry,’ I said, just for the hell of it, and grinned as I straightened up in the seat. He didn’t look amused.

‘I’m pretty certain you’ve got blood poisoning,’ he said. ‘We’re ten minutes away, do you think you’ll be all right?’

‘Yeah, I’m f–‘ I interrupted myself this time, gave him a guilty little smile, and nodded. ‘I don’t have anything left to puke out.’

‘Exactly what I wanted to hear,’ he said drily, helped me get back into a comfortable position in the seat and closed the door to come back around.

Heero claims I lost consciousness at that point.

He might be right.

I don’t remember.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now we're returning to the regular schedule :)  
> Next chapter on Wednesday.


	25. Priority

Getting my eyes to open fully was a struggle. I felt lethargic and they tried to fall closed as soon as I opened them a crack. Heero sat next to me in a chair with his head in his hand and his eyes closed. It made me frown in confusion. Why wasn’t he sleeping next to me? Surely it was night?

‘’Ro?’

He jumped at the sound of my voice, and his chin fell from his hand before he came fully awake and looked at me.

‘Join me instead?’ I said and started to move my hand in order to shift over when I felt the pull at my elbow. I lifted my arm slightly to be able to see the needle in it, the tape that kept it in place, and I let my gaze follow the line that was attached to it. There was a drip at the end.

‘It’s antibiotics,’ Heero said. He placed his hand on mine and brought it down to rest at my side again.

‘Hospital?’ I asked, and looked around for other hints that could support the theory. I didn’t have to look far. In fact, the bed itself was quite obviously a hospital bed when I thought about it, and I sighed. ‘Not enough room here for you.’

He let out a snort in surprise, and smiled.

‘No, there’s not.’

‘You were right then?’ Regarding the blood poisoning.

‘When aren’t I?’ he asked, pretending to be surprised, and I chuckled tiredly.

‘Sure. We can say that for now.’

‘Yeah,’ he said, sighed, and looked at me with sad eyes. ‘I didn’t want to be right.’

‘What’s wrong?’ I asked, a feeling of dread rushing over me, and I looked towards my infected arm that was covered by a blanket. ‘They haven’t taken my arm yet, right?’

‘No,’ he hurried in reassuring me and I let out a breath of relief. Some graces… With everything that had happened ever since Solo’s death, I wouldn’t have been all too surprised to wake up without an arm.

He leaned over to gently brush his lips over my cheek. ‘They think you’ll be fine, but…’ He tapered off.

‘Heero, you’re not making any sense. What’s wrong?’

‘You’ll be here for a while,’ he said. I should have thought about that. It should have been one of the first things to enter my mind once I realized I was in the hospital.

‘Rift Wars?’ I asked.

He shook his head. ‘Not even if you’re released tomorrow.’

I sighed, and looked up at the ceiling as I felt tears burn behind my eyelids. I was failing Solo yet again. While I’d had my doubts about entering, in my heart I’d always known I’d do it. Because I wanted to fulfill Solo’s dream. I wanted to give him one final ride.

‘No chance?’ I asked with an unsteady voice.

‘I’m sorry,’ Heero said, stroking a stray tear away from my cheek. It surprised me, that the tear had fallen without my knowledge.

‘Oh, Duo. Love,’ he breathed.

He leaned in and wrapped his right arm around my head. His left hand rested on my chest, and he put his head next to mine in the best mimic of a hug that he could come up with when I was lying in the bed. I wanted to lift an arm and hold him, but the I.V. was stopping one, and the pain from moving was stopping the other.

‘I always fail Solo.’ As soon as I’d said it, I wanted to take it back, because I knew Heero would argue with me.

‘He wouldn’t want you to do it if it meant hurting yourself.’

‘I shouldn’t have let it get this far. I forgot to clean it this morning.’

‘Then it’s just as much my fault. I also forgot,’ he said and I shook my head.

‘No!’

‘It wouldn’t have mattered. The precautionary antibiotics you got weren’t effective against the bacteria you ended up getting.’

‘If I hadn’t surfed yesterday –‘

‘It was probably infected already. Stop blaming yourself, Duo.’

‘Sorry,’ I said, trying to break the heavy atmosphere, and turned my head slightly to give him a kiss.

‘And stop apologizing already,’ he said, smiling.

I chuckled and gave him another kiss. ‘Sorry.’

Someone knocked on the door and Heero disentangled himself from me while the door was being opened, and a doctor stepped through the opening.

‘Ah, you’re awake, good,’ he said, walking to the edge of the bed. He grabbed the chart that was hanging there and lifted the papers, reading what was on it. ‘How do you feel?’

‘Not so shaky or cold. But kind of sluggish and tired.’

‘Any pain?’

‘Only a little,’ I said, realizing it was true only after I’d said it. While I couldn’t move the arm due to pain flaring up, the constant throbbing was more of a distant ache. Very distant.

‘A nurse will get you something for it soon,’ he said and finally looked up from the papers. ‘You’re lucky your friend brought you here quickly, Mr. Maxwell.’

He took a step to stand beside me, and carefully pulled back the covers from my arm. He inspected it closely before he grunted and wrote something on the paper. Then he proceeded with a normal check. He listened to my lungs, looked in my eyes, and checked my temperature. It was very difficult to keep myself awake during all of it, but when I started to fall asleep, he’d ask me some question, and I had to wake up again.

‘Well, Mr. Maxwell, we’ll be keeping you here for a couple of days at the very least. Your friend got you here before any organ failed on you and we’re hoping to keep it that way,’ he said and I looked at Heero, surprised.

He mainly looked relieved, so I figured he’d known about the organ failure part of blood poisoning. No wonder he’d been in such a hurry to get me here.

‘Thanks,’ I said, realizing I hadn’t said it yet.

He smiled softly. ‘Anytime.’

‘Now, you’re not out of the woods yet,’ the doctor said, ‘though you are already responding nicely to the antibiotics and fluids we’re giving you. Someone will be in to check on you every hour. You will be taken to surgery in about two hours to drain the infection in your arm.’

‘Thanks, doc,’ I said.

Heero stood up. ‘I’ll be right back,’ he said, and followed the doctor out of the room, making me wonder what he needed to talk to him about that I couldn’t be in the same room.

The fuzziness in my head didn’t let me think about it overly much, however. By the time Heero came back inside, I had almost fallen asleep. I blinked my eyes open to see him come in, but they fell closed almost immediately. I’d passed my point of endurance. I was so tired.

He gently swept his thumb across my forehead, moving any stray strands of hair. His soft lips brushed a kiss on the spot he’d just cleared, and I forced my eyes to open again.

‘Go to sleep, Duo,’ he said.

‘Stay?’ I asked, closing my eyes again. His fingers brushed against my cheek.

‘Always.’

He didn’t lie. Every time I woke up from feverish dreams that night, he was right there next to me. He showered me with soft words of love and every time I fell asleep with a small smile on my face.

It felt like a whole lot more than two hours before they came in to take me to surgery. Heero leaned down and hesitated with his lips above mine, giving me the opportunity to lift my head and capture his mouth in a kiss. I enjoyed not having a completely discreet relationship anymore, even though it may take some time for me to be fully comfortable with it.

‘Be right back, ‘Ro,’ I said when we separated.

He brushed a stray hair away from my forehead. ‘See that you are.’

They didn’t put me under during the procedure, but gave me local anesthetics and worked on draining the pus from my wound. At the beginning, I looked at what they did, fascinated, but I didn’t have the strength to keep my head up for too long and had to lie down. It made me more uncomfortable when I couldn’t see what they were doing. I expected every touch to hurt, so I held my breath, but that seemed to scare them, so I settled for focusing on breathing and trying to think about other things. Surfing. Heero. Solo. Rift Wars. It seemed like they were the recurrent subjects in my mind anyways.

When I looked at the wound when they told me they were done, it looked a whole lot wider than it had previously. They must have cut away some skin at the edges. An odd pipe was stuck inside the wound, and they wrapped it up in compresses and gauze.

I was tired when I was taken back to the room, and just barely managed to stay awake to give Heero a smile, and see his relieved look in return before I fell back to sleep.

Not many things before have made me feel quite as weak as I was feeling then. For days I could barely lift a finger. I stayed awake for about ten minutes at a time during which I most often had to talk to the doctors. Heero was a near constant presence at my side, although there were times I woke up and he wasn’t there, making me wonder if I’d dreamt him being there at all. Was he getting tired of being around me? I think I may have asked him. Heck, I think I may have yelled at him about it. I know I yelled at him about Rift Wars, about keeping me out of it. I think I may have told him to get the hell away. I’m having trouble remembering; it was all a blur through the fever those first few days. It was frustrating to not get better quicker than I was, and I took it out on Heero, which was a pretty crappy thing to do.

On the third day, I could feel myself improve. I could actually move without feeling like I was going to expire within the next five minutes. Although anything I did was in slow motion, it was enough to make me happy. That day was the day I realized I’d been a bit of an ass against Heero. A lot of an ass, actually.

He wasn’t there when I woke up in the afternoon, and I hoped I hadn’t managed to scare him off completely. I’d asked the nurse what the visiting hours were, and when Heero was usually here. According to her, he should have been there already, if she went by his visits the previous days. I’m the first to admit I was feeling a bit antsy.

He showed up, but only an hour before visiting hours ended. With me having struggled to stay awake just in case he’d show up, I was tired beyond belief then. He stopped in the doorway, making me ask him to come inside before he did. Then he didn’t kiss me, and my hopes diminished. He was giving up. I’d been a complete jerk, and now he hated me. I had to fix this.

‘’Ro, ‘m so s’ry,’ I struggled to say through everything that was trying to pull me off to sleep.

He took a step towards me, and hesitantly put his hand on my cheek. I leaned against it, taking comfort in the warmth I found in his gentle caress.

‘Didn’ mean ‘t,’ I said and he hushed me.

‘I know, love. Go to sleep.’

I fought against the pull of sleep. ‘Come earlier. T’morro’.’

‘I promise,’ he said, and I was gone.

When I woke up again, visiting hours had ended, and the chair by my bed was hauntingly empty. I looked intently at the white ceiling, trying to keep the tears that pricked in my eyes from falling. There was no chance of sleeping again so soon, so my mind decided to paint up every single way our meeting tomorrow could end. Most seemed to end with him leaving me. I knew they were most likely false, but a part of me believed it because, in the end, everyone left. Even Solo had.

While I realized later that wasn’t the best comparison, and it wasn’t fair to anyone. I was afraid, I had a fever, and was full of medication, and everything was trying to mess with my head. Succeeding in messing with my head.

Two hours before visiting hours came around again I extracted a promise from the nurse to wake me up before they started. It wouldn’t do if I fell asleep on Heero again. So I went to sleep, anxious, but still excited about seeing him again.

The nurse didn’t wake me up.

A gentle brush against my cheek brought me out of slumber, and then my lips were covered. I immediately recognized it as Heero, so I let my eyes stay closed and answered the kiss.

I opened my eyes when he withdrew. ‘I won’t complain if you always wake me like that.

He smiled softly. ‘I’ll hold you to that.’

I may have been overthinking things, but I thought I heard a gentle rebuke in his words.

‘’Ro, I’m really sorry about how I’ve been acting.’

‘You certainly seem to feel better,’ he said and sat down in the chair next to me.

‘A lot. I feel more like myself again.’

‘I can tell,’ he said, smiling.

‘I am really sorry, you know. I don’t remember exactly everything I’ve said, but I’ve been a pain in the ass.’

‘Only a little,’ he agreed, but then gave me a wide smile to take the edge of it. ‘But you’re allowed to be a bit of a pain when you’re sick.’

‘I expect you to pay me back in kind,’ I said, with a grin, because I knew we were just about done with the apologizing. Heero seemed to think I did too much of it anyways.

He laughed softly. ‘I expect not to get as sick as you’ve been now. But I’ll be sure to keep the offer in mind.’

‘You should,’ I said, and there was a bit of an uncomfortable silence during which he turned away from me slightly. That’s something I’ve never really had with Heero before. It unnerved me, because there was still something between us. Something he was hiding. Had I said something I couldn’t take back? I hated not knowing!

‘’Ro?’ I asked and he looked back into my eyes. It didn’t look as though he had slept much; he had bags under his eyes, and a hint of pink in his whites. ‘I love you?’ It came out more as a question than a statement.

‘Duo,’ he breathed. ‘Yes. I love you. Don’t ever think that I don’t.’

‘I thought…’ I shook my head. ‘Never mind.’

‘What, Duo?’

I love the way he says my name. He breathes it out. He lets it roll off the tongue like a caress.

‘Yesterday, you didn’t come until so late, I wondered…’ I turned my head to look out of the window, but Heero caught my chin with his hand and guided me back until I was looking at him again. ‘I wondered if I’d messed up so bad you didn’t want me anymore.’

‘No,’ he said firmly. ‘I’m sorry, Duo. There was an accident on the beach, I had to stay late yesterday.’

‘You all right?’ I let my eyes travel from his head, down his chest and arms, and was about to lean over to check if everything was fine with his lower parts as well when he leaned in to kiss me. I responded, but when he withdrew I looked into his eyes as intently as I could, trying to see what he was hiding.

‘Physically, yes.’ He stared above me, out the window, but I don’t think he saw what was out there. ’There was a drowning.’

‘Shit,’ I said, and brought my palms down flat on the bed, ignored the pulling of the IV as I bent my arms and pushed myself into a seated position. The change in position made the room spin for a moment and Heero’s hands grabbed me, one on my good arm and the other on my waist. I was impressed he’d had the presence of mind to avoid grabbing my wounded arm.

‘Duo, damn it, lie down.’

‘I’ve been lying down. I want to hold you.’

He hesitated, but only for a moment, before he transferred himself to the side of my bed. We somehow managed to maneuver ourselves around each other until he sat behind me with one leg hanging off the bed, and the other wrapped around me and going under my bent legs. He put his arms around my waist and pulled me back gently, until I leaned against his chest. He put his chin on my shoulder, and we leaned our heads against each other. This was good. Not quite what I wanted, but still better than only holding hands.

‘I thought I was going to hold you,’ I teased, and he chuckled throatily for me. We both knew I wouldn’t have the strength to stay seated on my own for very long. It had already been sapped, just by sitting up, and this was really the best way to feel him against me again.

‘Want to talk about it?’ I asked and he shook his head.

‘Not yet.’ He kissed the side of my neck. ‘Can we just stay like this for a while?’

‘Yes,’ I breathed, and closed my eyes as I reveled in the feeling that was Heero. His strong arms wrapped around me. His chest against my back, moving me in time with his breaths. I realized I’d missed the feeling.

‘Hi,’ Heero said softly, making me stir in his arms, but I was warm, and comfortable, and I didn’t want to move or open my eyes, so I buried myself deeper against him.

‘Hello,’ a voice I didn’t recognize said, and I forced myself to blink my eyes open.

‘I’m sorry,’ Heero muttered to the nurse whom was walking towards us. He started to bring back his hands from around me, making me feel chilled where he’d just had them. I had slipped down, or he had moved us, so I had my head on his chest.

‘Oh, don’t worry about it. Stay, if you will. I only need to check his IV,’ she said, and Heero’s hands came back to their spots around my waist. They thought I was asleep still, and I really wanted to stay where I was, so I closed my eyes.

My arm was uncovered as the nurse checked to make sure I hadn’t messed up the IV when I’d moved around earlier. She seemed happy as she moved away and there was some general clatter until I finally heard the door close up again.

‘You awake?’ Heero whispered. His warm breath brushed against the hairs on my head.

I opened my eyes again and burrowed against him.

‘Yeah. Did I sleep for long?’

He kissed the top of my head. ‘Twenty minutes, maybe.’

‘I didn’t mean to, I just can’t seem to stay awake.’

‘Don’t worry, Duo. You’re still sick, even if you’re feeling better.’

‘I hate this,’ I said and Heero pressed his lips against the top of my head again. ‘My hair is greasy.’

‘No complaining,’ he said with a chuckle and I smiled.

‘I love lying here, in your arms.’

‘That’s better,’ he said, and we both laughed easily leaving behind any trace of discomfort that we’d felt earlier.

‘What’s happened with Rift Wars?’

‘They’re still waiting. The surf has been pretty bad since the finals.’

I tried to do the calculation in my head, tried to figure out how many days was left of the waiting period, but I wasn’t fully sure how long I’d been out of it in fever-dreams. It could have been three days since the finals, or it could have been a week.

‘How long left?’

‘Five days. The forecast predicts some good wind in a few days.’

‘I won’t be good enough to join,’ I said. Heero had told me, I remembered that, but I’m not sure I’d let it sink down.

‘No.’

‘Who’s getting my spot when I drop out?’

I knew who would get it. The top surfer from the qualifiers that wanted to join in the Rift Wars would get it. My bets were on Mueller.

‘Mueller,’ Heero answered after a second’s hesitation. ‘G already withdrew your entry.’

It didn’t surprise me. G always was pretty quick to the punch. ‘Figured.’

I shifted in his grip to get away from some of the discomfort of having been in the same position for too long. My arm was starting to ache and I moved it to lie in my lap.

‘Let’s get you back onto the bed,’ Heero said. I shook my head.

‘I like it here.’

‘I do too, but I’ll be back tomorrow,’ he said and unwrapped his arms from around me. He slipped away from behind me, and gently helped me lie back down on the pillow.

While I loved being in Heero’s arms, I couldn’t deny that it felt good to lie down again.

Heero sat down oddly on the chair next to me and I frowned.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Leg fell asleep,’ he said, rubbing his thigh. I made a sympathetic noise, but was unable to stop the grin.

‘Want me to kiss it better?’

‘That’s what I need to do to make you well,’ he said and leaned in to kiss me.

‘You can kiss me anywhere,’ I said. He snorted in surprise.

‘Let’s wait till we get you home for that.’

I sniggered. ‘Someone might like the show.’

He laughed and stood up. He brought his left hand to wrap in my hair, and his right hand to my cheek, tracing it along my jawbone. He lifted my head slightly, and then he covered my lips with his.

It wasn’t one of those light kisses we’d done so far. This one contained all the pent up passion from the last days, and I willingly surrendered to him. I started to lift my hand to grab him, but he moved his hand from my jaw to my hand instead, where we intertwined our fingers. It was a good thing I wasn’t hooked up to a heart monitor, because it surely would have skipped a few beats.

When he withdrew, I reluctantly let him go. I was a bit out of breath and it pleased me to see that it hadn’t left him entirely unaffected, if the slight bulge in his pants was anything to go by. It did surprise me however, that it hadn’t stirred that kind of response from me.

‘I’ll come back tomorrow,’ Heero said and we gave each other’s hands a small squeeze before we let go and he left.

I couldn’t wait for the sun to rise to another day.

Things were looking up again.


	26. Layback

The next day, I finally felt human again. It no longer felt as though I’d need to sleep for hours after a great exertion, such as going to the bathroom with the help of two nurses. The downside of not being so tired was that it gave me time to understand how incredibly boring it was in a hospital when you’re more or less confined to your bed. I had chatted with the nurses a lot longer than they probably had time for, and I felt a bit guilty about stealing them away from the other patients. The last nurse to come in had pointedly handed me the remote control to the TV and I resigned myself to a day of boring television shows.

I’d only gotten through half a show when the door was opened to reveal Heero. I had to throw a glance at the clock, but it was hours before visiting hours. It was hours before Heero was even supposed to stop working.

‘You bribe the nurses to let you in early?’

‘What?’ he asked with a small smile as he started to sit down in the chair next to me. I reached out and grabbed his hand before he sat down.

‘Could you…’ I hesitated, not wanting to sound like a needy kid, but I pushed myself up to sit on the bed.

Heero got it, and edged in behind me. I leaned my head backwards and met him in a kiss.

I leaned against him as he wrapped his hands around my waist. ‘You’re early.’

‘It’s Saturday, Duo.’

I hadn’t known that. I’d lost some concept of time while at the hospital. The days had a tendency to merge into each other when sleeping the irregular hours I’d been keeping. It was four days before the end of the Rift Wars waiting period. The first day of the waiting period had been the day of the finals. Shit, I’d been at hospital for a week! I wondered if I could get checked out before Rift Wars started.

‘You’ve still got work, don’t you?’ I asked, bringing my head back to the reason why Heero was so early.

The hesitation from him made me pause. I could feel him hold his breath. I leaned out to turn my head so I could watch him. His jaw was tightly set, as though he was trying to keep something in.

‘’Ro? Talk to me?’

He sighed and put his head on my shoulder. Something felt off, and I shifted in his arms.

‘Duo, what are you doing?’ Heero asked when I moved my arm so I could wrap it around him.

‘I’m tired of not being able to hold you.’

‘When you’re better you can hold me however much you want,’ he said and took a hold of my hands.

‘I’m better. What you’re saying is soon as they take this IV out,’ I said in bitter amusement.

‘Yes,’ he said and I leaned back against him again, and intertwined our fingers together so at least I could hold his hands tightly.

‘Tell me what’s wrong?’

‘There’s… I took some time off from work.’

Warning bells went off everywhere. He loved work. But then I remembered what he’d said before. He hadn’t lost anyone to the ocean since his cousin, until a couple of days ago.

Shit, I was insensitive.

‘What happened?’

He was silent and I moved my thumb slowly over his hand, not saying anything to press him on.

‘It wasn’t even a bad day. The surf was calm,’ he said. He sighed deeply. ‘One moment I saw him, and the next he was just gone. I went out immediately, but I couldn’t be sure exactly where I’d lost him. I just saw him for half a second.’

He didn’t have to say it. The ocean is treacherous. When you don’t have a fixed point to go by, it’s hard to know how far out it was.

‘I dove under.’ He squeezed his hands tightly around mine, lost in memory. ‘I couldn’t find him. We searched for hours before he was found.’

‘It’s not your fault.’

‘He was lost in my area, I should have seen him.’

‘Hey, ‘Ro.’ I shifted and tried to look him in the eyes, but he was gazing intently out the window. I retracted my hand from his and lifted it. The IV pulled at my elbow as I bent it, and I wanted to swear loudly, and throw it out the window. I was tired of it! I was tired of not being able to move the way I wanted. I didn’t throw it out the window, but I did curse as I pulled it out of my arm.

‘Duo!’ Heero said, and scrambled for the IV line that was falling against the stand. He wouldn’t have been able to catch it without pushing me off bed, so he stopped going for it as soon as he pushed against me.

I took the chance to tuck my leg underneath me and turn around to face Heero. I put my hands on his arms and drew him towards me. It was an awkward position, but he wrapped his arms around me and I could reach around him as well. Finally, I had him in my arms. His heart was racing.

‘It’s not your fault. Accidents do happen.’

‘I know. I hoped it’d never happen to me again.’

‘It doesn’t work that way,’ I said, and he held me tighter, not saying anything.

Gods, he was hurting.

‘You’ve been beating yourself up about this since it happened?’ I asked, and gently rubbed my hand in circles over his back.

He hesitated, then, ‘Maybe.’

‘’Ro, there’s nothing you could have done. His life is not on your head.’

‘Yeah,’ he breathed, but he didn’t believe me. He wouldn’t believe me. I hadn’t been there to see it and all I could really do was to provide comfort. He leaned his cheek on my shoulder. There was a suspicious wetness on it and I moved my hand to the back of his head, where I could bury it in his hair.

It was close to ten minutes before he lifted his head. He withdrew and I let him go, pulling back my arms to myself. My injured arm was shaking from the strain of being held up for so long. The other arm felt kind of odd, and difficult to uncurl, which made me look down at it. There was crusted blood in the crook of my elbow.

Heero took a hold of my wrist, and twisted it slightly to be able to see properly.

‘I’ll get the nurse,’ he said.

‘I can wash it myself.’

‘They’ll need to put the IV back in.’

‘I’m sick of it. I can’t move around properly.’

He didn’t listen to me. I hadn’t expected him to. He got out of the bed, helped me lie back down, and took one step away from the bed when the door opened and a nurse came in.

She took one glance at the dropped IV, another on my arm, and sighed deeply.

‘Sorry,’ I said, shrugging.

‘Well, you have proved to be a bit of an impossible patient. The doctors have said you’re fine to go on normal tablets, so you won’t need the IV anymore,’ she said and wetted a cloth.

She took a gentle hold of my arm and put the cloth on it. She wiped it over my arm and the blood was quickly gone. She then proved her earlier statement by handing me a pill and a glass of water, urging me to take it, before she left us alone.

‘I didn’t mess up,’ I told Heero with a wide grin on my face. He still stood a bit away, and I was relieved to hear him chuckle.

‘You did. You were just lucky they were switching you to regular antibiotics anyways.’

I sat up in the bed, letting my legs dangle off the side, happy with my newfound freedom from the IV line. ‘Hey, ‘Ro? It means I’m getting better, right? I’ll be out of here soon?’

He took a deep breath and walked up to me, placing his hands on my knees. I spread my legs and wrapped them behind his thighs, and pressed him forwards. I hooked my hands together at the small of his back. He put one hand on the back of my head and I leaned my head against his chest.

‘You are getting better, a lot. Just two days ago you could barely tell me your name,’ he said. I chuckled softly.

‘It’s Simon, right?’

‘Last I heard, it was Doug,’ he said in an amused voice.

‘Really? It’s got a ring to it. Maybe I should switch?’

‘I like Duo better,’ he said. I lifted my head from his chest and looked up at him with a smile. He smiled back, leaned down, and we were kissing.

A loud knock sounded from the door, making me jump. I leaned over slightly to be able to see the door open to reveal Hilde. She came in with a small box in her hands, closely followed by Quatre, Trowa and Wufei. All of them had their own boxes and I frowned.

‘If you two are busy, we’ll come back later,’ Quatre said. I chuckled for him and let go of Heero, who turned and sat down on the bed next to me. I leaned against him.

‘You can only do so much in the hour that the nurses leave me alone,’ I said. ‘You come bearing gifts?’

‘You think you get gifts when you almost scared us to death?’ Hilde said.

‘I thought that was the point with hospital visits?’ I replied with a wide grin.

‘G asked us to bring these,’ Quatre said and deposited his box in my lap before he sat down in the chair. ‘He needed to go back to the mainland, but he said he’d call you later.’

‘Call me?’ I asked, and started to open the box. ‘On what, exactly?’

‘I got you a phone,’ Heero said with a shrug of his shoulders.

I looked at him incredulously. ‘You spoil me.’ I gave him a peck on the cheek.

‘I did it more for me,’ he said with quirked lips. He leaned towards me and brushed his lips over mine.

‘Ok, enough with the mushiness. Open the box already.’ Hilde said and Heero and I parted with grins on our faces.

‘This isn’t mushy, Hil’. You and Solo were way worse.’

‘Like hell we–‘ She paused and thought about it. ‘Yeah, okay, maybe we were. But please, open the box,’ she said.

I chuckled, but moved my hands to start opening the box in my lap. She was always like this when there was something she didn’t know the contents of. Curious to a fault. It made her easy to tease.

‘Hey, I’ve been thinking…’ I drawled, dragging it out, pausing my hands with one edge of the box half open.

‘Duo!’

I laughed, but relented and opened the box. In it was a bunch of letters, all addressed to G’s office in Elto, with me as recipient. I took out the one at the top.

This was going to be the backlash from what I’d done at the finals. There had been television crews, journalists and photographers there to document everything; of course it would go on the news. I should have expected some public reaction. Rather, I had expected a public reaction, but it had kind of gotten lost in everything else over the last few days.

Heero’s hand discreetly settled in the small of my back, and I gave him a grateful smile before I opened the letter.

There was one sentence in it that stuck with me.

_You’ve made me stronger._

I gaped at it. Heero leaned in to read it as well, and I tilted it to him. His hand moved to my waist and he pulled me against him. I leaned my head on his shoulder, getting a bit tired.

‘Is this the part where you tell me “told you so”?’ I asked him silently, but he simply placed a kiss on the top of my head.

‘What’s in it?’ Hilde asked, at the end of her patience, and I handed her the letter, along with the box.

‘Oh, Duo,’ she said when she’d finished reading it, and I was sure I could see her eyes shine, suspiciously wet. She handed the letter to Quatre when prompted, and he, Wufei and Trowa read it on their own as well.

‘Do you think the rest are like this?’ Quatre asked

I shrugged. ‘Last time G sent me a bunch of letters they were all positive, so I assume he’s been sorting them through.’

‘Hey, Duo… if any of these mention the article in Surf’d…’ Hilde started hesitantly, and I just barely resisted the urge to groan. I had forgotten about that.

She took out a copy from her back pocket and I accepted it with a shaking hand. I’m not sure if it shook because I was exhausted or because I was scared about the contents of that paper. Heero squeezed his hand gently around my waist, making me look at him. His brows were knit together in worry, and I smiled for him, trying to tell him that I wasn’t too tired for this. His lips tightened, not entirely happy, but he didn’t say anything.

‘Middle page,’ Hilde said and I opened the magazine in the middle, immediately met by a huge picture of me in a wave that looked to be over double overhead. I had a smile on my face and the sunrise was depicted behind me. It took the entire middle spread, and there was no text, except for the title. _Sunrise Surfer_.

‘I wanted to show the article to you before I sent it in, but…’ I got too sick, I finished for her in my mind.

‘I read it,’ Heero said, and I thought I saw a grateful smile on Hilde’s face. If I didn’t like it, it wouldn’t only be on Hilde’s shoulders.

I turned the page and the first thing that caught my eye was another picture, of me in a huge barrel, and then the last picture of me and Heero kissing in the water in the sunrise. The picture Trant had taken. I clenched my jaw, wanting to ask her why the hell she’d put that in there, but managed to avoid it. The text was wrapped around the pictures and I skimmed it over.

She had wrapped our conversations during the last month into a beautiful array of words. She’d written about my struggle after Solo, and how I’d come back on track through the help of friends. She’d written about my dedication to the sport, and finally, in the last paragraph, she’d written about love. She’d managed to put my love of surfing, my love for my friends, and my love for Heero into words that almost seemed to come to life.

_No matter what or whom you love, it’s all the same in the end. It all takes you towards the final goal of happiness._

I swallowed tightly. G had told me that when I’d first told him I was gay, and Hilde had managed to use it as her finishing quote for the article.

‘Duo?’ Hilde asked quietly, and I looked up from the article, into her eyes. They were wide, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her that scared before or after. ‘Do you hate it?’

I shook my head. ‘I saw the picture of Heero and me, and I wanted to.’

She opened her mouth, and I hurried to continue. ‘But I can’t hate it. It’s absolutely beautiful. Shit, Hil’, you never told me you were this good.’

She blushed, but a bashful smile appeared on her face.

‘Shit, huh?’

I smirked. ‘Yeah, go ahead, listen to the only bad word I said.’ I scooted off the bed carefully, Heero’s hand not moving an inch from its position on my waist. I held out my arms. ‘Come here, Hil’.’

She practically flew to her feet and hugged me. Not tightly, she was cautious not to hurt me. I needed tighter, though, and I clutched her to me.

‘I’ve been so scared you’d leave me, just like Solo,’ she whispered into my ear as we held each other.

‘Not this time,’ I said, and she snorted.

‘You’re not very good at reassurances, Duo,’ she said and we parted from our embrace.

Heero was quick to move me back against him when I faltered as I lost Hilde’s support. It had been too much today. I was tired, and my legs felt a bit like spaghetti.

Heero held me tightly around the waist, and I could lean my back against his chest. He made no move to lift me up onto the bed, for which I was grateful. They didn’t need to see I was this weak.

‘Hil’, there wasn’t a word about me winning in there though.’ I said, and she chuckled.

‘Next page,’ she said, and I flipped the page to see a picture where I accepted the winnings from Gundams. ‘Michael was supposed to write it, but since you won, I got to do it instead.’

‘And just how did you managed to get Trant to give you that picture?’

‘Well, I didn’t show him what I’d write. He cares about money, so he let us use it for some compensation.’

‘You shouldn’t have,’ I said, and she bit her lower lip, looking uncertain of herself.

‘I asked her to.’ Heero said. ‘It’s a great picture, Duo.’

‘I know, but –‘ I interrupted myself. My main concern had been that Heero was completely visible in it, but if he didn’t have an issue with it, then who was I to complain? ‘Sorry, yeah, it’s a great picture.’

Hilde let out a sigh before her eyes strayed towards the clock on the wall. Her eyes widened minutely.

‘I have to go, my flight back leaves in a little while,’ she said, and I frowned.

‘You’re not staying for Rift Wars?’

‘No, they need me elsewhere, but they have a freelancer here to cover it. Call me, Duo. And visit me anytime.’

‘And you need to come back here‘ I said, before I realized I hadn’t thought about what I’d do now. I hadn’t discussed it with Heero at all, putting it off. To be honest, there wasn’t a lot of discussion to be had. I’d made my decision when I’d read those words in the letter. _You’ve made me stronger._ I’d go back to the pro circuit. I hoped Heero would still have me.

‘I will. Love you, Duo. Take care, and don’t go back into the water until the doctors say it’s fine, okay?’ she said and leaned forward to give me a peck on my cheek.

I stopped leaning on Heero for a second and reached my arms around her in a hug again.

‘I’ll miss you, Hil’.’

‘I’ll miss you too,’ she said and we parted. ‘You’ve got my number though, use it.’

‘I will,’ I told her, and she left, the door making a final sound as it closed behind her.

I couldn’t take it anymore, and my legs started to fold under me. Heero was there in a second, and lifted me into his arms much too easily. I tried to ignore the horrified stares I got from the other three in the room, and I looked intently out of the window as Heero put me down on the bed. He drew the blankets over me, and I noticed how cold it had been.

‘’Ro, I’m tired,’ I whispered.

‘I know, they’re leaving,’ he said just as I heard the door close again, and I dared to look back at Heero. ‘Go to sleep.’

‘Could you… read some letters to me?’ I asked and he smiled. He pulled the chair in under him so he could sit down close to me. He bent down and put a stack of letters next to my pillow, opened the first one and took a hold of my hand before he began to read.

I tried to fight off the sleepiness. I wanted to listen to his voice, listen to what people wanted to tell me in their letters. As he put the fourth letter away, I was having trouble keeping my eyes open.

His lips brushed against my forehead.

‘Sleep now,’ he breathed. ‘We can continue when you wake up.’

I sighed, and settled in to sleep when I thought about something.

‘’Ro, you think G filtered the letters?’

‘No,’ he answered, without a moment’s hesitation.

‘Why not?’

‘They’re all sealed,’ he answered simply.

Well, shit.


	27. Goofy

I was going home.

Home, it’s always been a foreign concept to me, and yet it felt completely natural. It shouldn’t have been. With less than two months of living together with Heero, and the rest of the guys, I felt more at home than I ever had before. Even though it pained me to think that I was feeling more at home here than I ever had with Solo. Maybe because I’d never quite stopped feeling like I was intruding on Solo when I’d moved in with him. Especially when Hilde came into the picture.

I had called Heero, from my brand new cell phone, as soon as the doctor had cleared me during the morning round, and he was coming to pick me up.

So of course I expected it to be Heero that knocked on the door. Of course I threw my covers off and was halfway to the door, fully prepared to give him the best kiss of his life, when the door was opened and a kid in wheelchair rolled into view.

I stopped, surprised, and wondered if they’d already given my room away to someone else.

‘Sorry to bother you, Mr. Maxwell,’ the kid said, and I frowned, but took the final steps to get to him and held out my hand.

‘You seem to know me, but I’m afraid I have no idea who you are,’ I said.

He blushed slightly, but held up his hand, allowing me to take it and shake it.

‘I’m Kip.’

I immediately recognized the name. It was the kid that Wufei had pulled from the water, who ended up with a spinal injury. The kid whose father I’d signed a shirt for. I smiled when I noticed he was wearing that very same shirt.

‘Ah, right. I should have realized. Come on in,’ I said and backed away to allow him to roll further into the room.

I sat down in the chair, feeling oddly nervous. According to his father, this kid was a huge fan of mine. I’d read letter upon letter that were full of supportive words, but let’s face it, the world doesn’t change in one day. Quite a few of the letters had been complete flames. Some had gone so far as to wish me off the face of the earth, in more or less kind words. Mainly less. Either way, I could handle reading it, or having it read to me as it were. Heero and I had had more than one argument about whether or not he should really say what was in the letters. I won. Or thought I did, but he might have altered a word or two. I wasn’t sure if I could handle a kid sitting in front of me, telling me I’d disappointed him. Taking the shirt with my autograph off and throwing it in my face.

‘I just… wanted to thank you,’ he said, and it was so not what I had been expecting that I was stunned.

‘What?’ I asked, before I caught myself. Howard had almost gotten me to stop that habit. I was pretty sure an explanation would have followed even without me asking.

‘For coming here, like I asked you to, in my letter,’ he said, and I blinked. There had been no letters asking me– Not this round of letters. Of course.

‘I had to surf with the legends,’ I answered. The wide grin on his face told me I’d gotten it right. He’d written the letter I’d wanted to show Hero and the rest of the guys.

‘You did a lot more than surf with them,’ he said, and I blushed, thinking about Heero. Then I blushed even more when I realized the kid wasn’t even in his teens and his mind probably wasn’t half as dirty as mine. ‘It’s awesome that they sponsored you! I saw the finals on the TV, you were so cool out there.’

I laughed at his enthusiasm. Besides, I loved being called cool.

‘I do my best.’

‘You did it while you were hurt?’ he asked in a small voice. I looked at his downcast eyes, and wondered why he would ask that. Surely, it had to do with his disability, but I wasn’t sure which answer would be the best.

‘He continued to compete even after he got a bashing from the reef, yes. You may call him cool, but I’m leaning more towards calling him an idiot, myself,’ Heero said with laughter in his voice from the door. I turned my head to look at him where he leaned against the doorframe. It looked like he’d been standing there for a while.

‘And I won,’ I said.

‘Not against the reef, you didn’t,’ Heero said, and Kip laughed.

‘Neither did I,’ he said.

What the hell do you answer to that?

‘No one ever wins against the ocean,’ I said, slowly, trying to think of something good to say. I shrugged, realizing I was better off just going with what I thought. ‘Everyone falls sometimes, it’s how we get back up that matters.’

Kip sighed, and opened his mouth to speak, but I wasn’t finished.

‘You’re pretty awesome, you know. I’m stoked you watched the finals of Gundams. And you’re a brave kid to come here to visit me as well. You’ll have ups and downs, I’m sure of it, but you’ll do great.’

‘Even in this?’ he asked, with a smack of his hand against the wheelchair.

‘Even,’ I said.

‘I won’t be able to surf anymore.’

He pouted, and I bit the inside of my cheek, having no idea what to say. I wasn’t good at this. I wasn’t good with kids in general, and a kid who recently got placed in a wheelchair, I had no idea how to approach.

‘I’ll take you on the longboard when you’re allowed back in the water, Kip,’ Heero said, and the kid looked up at him with adoration in his eyes. Heero was surely the real legend according to Kip. He was right.

Obviously, I thought in amusement, he was more a fan of Heero’s than a fan of mine.

‘Really? Yes!’ Kip said happily, before his face dropped. ‘It might be a while though.’

‘I’ll be here,’ Heero promised, and I thought I saw tears well up in Kip’s eyes before he looked away.

‘I better get back to my room. Thanks Heero. And Duo, I still think you rock. I’ll definitely follow you next season as well.’

‘Thank you,’ I said, and he rolled out.

Heero raised an eyebrow as he looked at me, with the edge of his mouth turned upwards.

‘I rock, you heard that, right?’ I said with a wide grin as I went up to him and wrapped my arms around his neck, finally able to do so without him freaking out about me hurting myself. Finally able to do so without me caring so much about who’s watching. His arms wrapped around my waist and drew me in closer in his embrace.

‘I did,’ he said and we brought our lips together.

Someone cleared their throat behind Heero and I leaned my head a bit to the side so I could see over his shoulder. It was a young nurse, who wore a wide grin on her face.

‘I’ll change your dressing, then you’ll be free to go home,’ she said, and cast an appreciative glance at Heero before she caught herself and blushed hotly as she turned her gaze away. I couldn’t really blame her; he’s a vision to behold. Above all, he’s mine.

She was done quickly, with a speed that could only come from years of practice, despite her youth. She admonished me not to go back into the ocean until cleared by the doctors. It made me glance at Heero, and he got a somewhat smug look on his face when he saw me look. He was pretty much telling me he would make sure I didn’t get into the ocean. He’d keep me out until I’d been cleared by a doctor, and a second and a third opinion.

Unfortunately for me, going home didn’t mean that everything was fine. I felt a bit like a newborn foal that was trying to learn how to walk. The walk from the hospital to the car was slow. Heero had his hand under my elbow, ready to assist, but he didn’t say a word about the pace. I was grateful. I really didn’t need him to point out how slow we were going. I was rather proud of managing the walk without him needing to pick me up and carry me.

I didn’t have much energy, and I fell asleep before we had made our way out of the parking lot.

‘Duo, wake up,’ Heero said, and I felt him brush my hair away from my forehead.

‘Hey,’ I muttered as I blinked my eyes open. Heero was standing outside of the car, having managed to open the door without waking me up. He had a small, loving smile on his lips.

‘Hey, we’re home.’

‘Finally,’ I said, trying to muster up a teasing grin. ‘Why did it take so long?

He laughed.

‘You –‘ His voice was drowned out by loud barking, and then Zero was trying to get past Heero so he could jump into the car. Heero whistled sharply, and Zero sat down, with his tail still wagging excitedly, letting me get out without being jumped on.

As soon as I was down and felt relatively steady, I bent down to pet Zero, who went straight for my face, licking excitedly. I laughed and pushed against his muzzle when Heero whistled again to make him stop. Zee looked up at his owner, gave a small whine, and inched back towards me.

‘He’s missed you,’ Heero said.

‘I notice. Is he the only one?’

‘I met you every day,’ Heero said with a shrug, and I was just about to explain when he took a hold of my arm and turned me to face him. ‘I missed you a lot. More than Zero did, I think,’ he said, and captured my lips with his.

‘I missed you too. I missed holding you, and having you next to me in bed,’ I said, and we held each other tightly.

‘I told you I heard the car.’

‘No one came in, so I assumed it was someone else.’

I turned around in Heero’s embrace to see Quatre and Trowa on the deck, leaning on the railing.

‘Hey! We were going to come in,’ I said. ‘Eventually.’

‘The food is already cold,’ Quatre said with an upturned nose before he laughed happily, and ducked down under the railing. He jogged up to us, and I soon had him in my arms.

‘Duo… As much as I missed you…’ Quatre mumbled and drew back from me, holding me at arm’s length. ‘You kind of smell.’

‘Really?’ I asked, and lifted my braid to my nose to check. He was right, and I scrounged my nose. ‘The showers at the hospital just weren’t up to my standards.’

‘Cold water outdoors?’ Trowa asked and I gave a shrug.

‘It’s the best after a hot day.’

‘All right,’ Quatre said with a smile. ‘Come on back, we have food ready.’

‘I thought you said it had gone cold?’ Heero asked, and put his hand around my waist and supported me as we walked, allowing me to keep a slightly quicker pace than I could have completely on my own. I wasn’t sure they knew exactly how off I still was, and I wasn’t sure I wanted them to find out. So I strained myself to look as healthy as I possibly could.

‘I think I said it’s _already_ cold. It was cold to begin with,’ Quatre answered off-handedly and turned around to walk with us around the deck to where we could finally sit down by the table.

It was great, to have lunch with them again. Wufei was still at work, not being able to take a day off on such short notice, but Quatre had taken the day off when Heero had said I’d be getting out from the hospital. Trowa had simply closed shop early, and we sat around the table until Wufei found his way back from work, and I was almost falling asleep where I sat.

‘Nice to see you back, Duo,’ Wufei said, putting a hand on my shoulder, which was about as much physical interaction he’d ever initiate. Given that, it felt like a hug. I still wanted more.

I grabbed a hold of his hand and pulled. It surprised him enough to bring him out of balance, and I pulled again, making him crash onto my lap. Unfortunately, I hadn’t calculated for how the chair would take the sudden extra weight. It held for a part of a second, before we fell onto the deck, chair crumbled beneath us. Zero was immediately by our side, trying to lick our faces and join in the fun.

I laughed, and after half a moment everyone else was laughing as well. Wufei scrambled to get off of me, but held a hand out for me to take. I grabbed it and was helped to my feet. I took an extra step and gave him a quick hug. Quick, because it was about as much as he would comfortably stand for.

‘I missed you too,’ I said when I let go.

‘Apparently,’ Wufei said, somewhat coldly, but I could see the edge of his mouth twitching, as though he was trying to contain a smile. ‘I’m heading out to surf, anyone wants to join?’

Nothing could have stopped the laughter around quite as quickly as that. Everyone looked at me, and I think Wufei realized what he’d asked, but I shook my head and grinned. It’s not like I could keep them from surfing until I was allowed to. They’d have to wait for weeks.

‘Nah, I’ll stay on dry ground a while. You guys go,’ I said.

‘Are you sure?’ Quatre asked, and I nodded.

‘Just go. I’ll survive here, as long as no more chairs decide to drop out from under me.’

‘All right,’ Quatre said hesitantly.

Heero put his hand on my waist, and I leaned in against him.

‘I’ll stay,’ Heero said.

I shook my head. ‘Nah. I’ll just go sleep, it won’t be interesting.’

He chuckled softly and placed a kiss on my nose. I lifted my head a little so I could make sure his next kiss was placed on my lips.

‘If you’re sure?’ he asked, and I nodded.

‘Completely.’

He gave me another kiss before he too left for the water. I momentarily enjoyed the thought of going down to watch them, but I hadn’t been lying. I was really tired.

Zero pushed his head against my hand and I let my fingers play in his fur as I watched Heero’s back get farther and farther away from me. His board was clutched under his right arm, and the muscles in his back worked as he treaded across the beach.

He paused, and turned back around with a smile. I grinned and gave him a small wave, before indicating with my hand towards the ocean, telling him to go already. He waved and turned back towards the ocean.

When he was little more than a dot, I turned and slowly went back inside. I had every intention of lying down in Heero’s bed and going straight to sleep, but then I remembered Quatre’s earlier comment about my… less than satisfying odor. I still smelled of hospital, and I didn’t want to put that smell in Heero’s… in _our_ bed. Above all, I didn’t want to wake up to that smell and believe I was still in the hospital.

So instead of going to the bedroom, I went to the bathroom. I divested myself of my clothes quickly, gave a thought to the poor nurse that had changed the dressing in vain only hours previously, and went in to stand under the steady stream of water.

It felt like heaven, to feel the drops rush over my head, and down, tracking the lines of my body. I hadn’t had a true shower in what was going on two weeks. In the beginning, the nurses had been partial to sponges. When I’d been well enough to stand without assistance for five minutes, I’d been allowed in the showers with assistance. My hair, however, had gotten little to no attention. If only I’d had the thought to ask Heero to help me.

‘Duo?’ Heero’s voice. He knocked on the door, and I leaned out of the shower to unlock it.

‘Come in,’ I said, and he opened the door and stepped inside. He took one glance at me, and locked it again.

‘Bad surf?’ I asked, even though I knew it hadn’t been. The waves had been rolling.

‘Not at all,’ he said. ‘But I realized I’d rather be with you.’ He stepped into the shower, making me laugh as he put his arms around me. ‘Even if you would only be sleeping.’

‘Your clothes, ‘Ro,’ I said. Grinning like an idiot, I’m sure.

‘I have others,’ he said and proceeded to kiss me.

As much as I loved kissing in the shower, the water did get into our mouths and rushed down our noses, doing its best to make us stop. We let up and took a deep breath, and I proceeded to help Heero out of his shirt, and then his surfing trunks. He was obviously excited, and I hesitated before I reached for him, but Heero grabbed my hand, pressing me against the wall as he proceeded to kiss me soundly.

‘Leave it,’ he said, breathlessly, looking at me with slightly lidded eyes. I swallowed tightly.

It’s not like he was alone in being excited. We’d both gone two weeks, or close to, without being able to do more with each other than kissing. But I could already feel my legs shaking; I’d done more in a couple of hours than I had during the entire time at the hospital, and it was taking its toll. I didn’t have the strength for any extra activities and we both knew it.

‘Gods, ‘Ro,’ I said, and put my head on his shoulder, nuzzling against his wet neck. ‘I love you so much.’

‘I love you too,’ he said, tilting his head to kiss my neck. It made me shiver.

‘I thought you were going to sleep,’ he said.

‘Had to get rid of the smell first.’

‘You smell fine to me.’

I chuckled against his neck.

‘My hair’s in tangles.’

He leaned around me, making me lift my head lest I wanted to drop to the floor, and grabbed the bottle of shampoo.

‘Turn around, I’ll help you.’

I turned, and he buried his fingers in my hair, rubbing the shampoo gently against my scalp.

‘That feels so good,’ I muttered, and he chuckled softly, but didn’t say anything.

He worked his way down on my hair, and I gave a small groan when he stopped massaging my head. He rinsed it out, and I handed him the bottle of conditioner. I really needed it, or the hair would be impossible to detangle, but my legs were really starting to feel like Jell-O.

I think Heero noticed, because he was quick, and once he had me rinsed down he wrapped me in a towel and lifted me up. I took a sharp intake of breath in surprise, and only gave a token of objection before I buried my head against his neck.

‘’Ro…’ I said, and grinned when he painstakingly got the door unlocked and opened. ‘You’re buck naked.’

‘I know,’ he said, but didn’t let me go.

I laughed when he looked left, then right, before jogging through the hall to our room. I leaned a little to open the door for us, and Heero put me down gently on the bed before he hurried back to close the door.

Before long, I was dried off, and lying with my head in Heero’s lap as he took up the gentle massage of my scalp again.

‘Anything happen?’ I asked, still wondering a bit what made him change his mind about surfing.

‘I couldn’t just miss you?’

‘Not in five minutes you can’t,’ I answered, feeling how my senses were starting to fade away as my eyelids were dropping of their own accord.

‘I always miss you when you’re not around,’ he said, and I forced myself awake.

I lifted my head to look at him, and he gazed at me with a loving smile. I put my head back in his lap and reached out for the hand that wasn’t busy tending to my scalp. He put his hand on mine and I intertwined our fingers. I didn’t answer. I’d always miss Heero too, when we weren’t next to each other, and I wondered how I’d tell him of my decision to continue on the Pro circuit.

‘The man that I lost, he’d had a brain aneurysm,’ Heero said after a while, just as I was about to drift off to sleep.

‘Great,’ I muttered, before what he’d said registered in my mind. I lifted my head again, and he looked quite amused, but I still wanted to apologize for the rather insensitive thing to say. ‘I mean –‘

‘I know,’ he said, and I knew he did. He still hadn’t lost anyone to the ocean since his cousin. ‘Sleep, Duo.’

He pressed his lips softly against my forehead, making me lean against him again, and I closed my eyes. I started drifting again; the steady movement of his fingers against my scalp made me go quicker.

‘I’m just scared now who’ll be the first,’ he said softly.

I tried to answer, I really did. I opened my mouth, I think, but I fell asleep before I could say anything.

There’s always a first.

Sometimes it’s better to just not think about it.

I would do my very best to make sure it wasn’t me.


	28. Cranking

It was dark when I woke up. I had expected to feel my hair in tangles under me, but instead, it was all wrapped up in a silky braid. A new dressing had been applied to my arm. Usually, it wouldn’t be possible to do all that without me waking up. It was another testament to how not fine I had been.

Heero was lying beside me, with his hand wrapped tightly around my braid and he held it close to his chest. He looked… vulnerable, in lack of a better word. Like he was holding on to a lifeline. As though he expected me to disappear.

I rolled over to my side and lifted my hand to gently brush it over Heero’s cheek. He’s beautiful, and he loves me. It’s hard to believe, with all the curve balls I’ve thrown him, but somehow he sticks by me. I hoped he’d continue sticking by me, even after I told him I had to go back to the pro tour the next season. I’m not sure what I was going to do if he didn’t. I couldn’t imagine life without Heero anymore. At the same time, I had an obligation to myself, and to the boys and girls that put their faith in me, to head back to the tour, at least one more time.

‘Duo?’ Heero asked in a sleepy voice, and I leaned in to kiss his forehead.

‘Sleep, ‘Ro. It’s just 3 a.m.’

He moved his hand, still with my braid in it, to lie around my waist, and cuddled in closer. He threw a leg over my hip, and curled it behind me, making me completely enveloped, before he fell back to sleep.

I’d missed this, this feeling of security, of love. At the hospital, the longest I’d slept at a time was when Heero had been there, but never more than an hour. Now, I had suddenly managed to sleep almost twelve hours without interruptions. I vaguely wondered if Heero had sat with me the entire time.

Having slept twelve hours, however, ensured that I wasn’t tired anymore, and I spent hours watching Heero as he slept. He tensed up on occasion, and the grip on my braid became stronger. A soft reassurance that I was there was all he needed to calm down, and it broke my heart. He’d been struggling so much during these days, and I hadn’t seen it.

I must have fallen asleep again, for when I blinked my eyes open, the light from the dawn shone in through the window, and Heero was rubbing small circles with his hand on my arm.

‘Morning,’ I mumbled, almost more tired then than I had been when I woke up in the middle of the night.

‘Morning,’ Heero said, and I tilted my head so I could land a morning kiss on his lips. ‘How do you feel?’

‘Tired,’ I said, putting my head back down, onto Heero’s chest this time.

He put the back of his hand on my forehead and I chuckled.

‘Because I’ve slept too much, ‘Ro. I’m fine.’

‘Okay,’ he said, and started to play with some hair that had fallen loose from the braid.

‘You going back to work today?’ I asked after a while, and his hand paused before picking up again.

‘I would, but if the surf is like last evening, I expect Rift Wars to be on today.’

I’d forgotten all about Rift Wars, or I’d avoided thinking about it. I brought my hand up to the necklace that in my head was now called Solo’s Tear. It pained me; I wouldn’t be out there, surfing the competition. I wouldn’t fulfill Solo’s last dream, and it felt like a failure. There was nothing I could do about it. Going out there when I felt the way I did would be nothing short of attempted suicide. Maybe I’d get another chance next year.

Heero sat up, bringing me along with him, and held me tightly against his chest. He didn’t say anything, which I was just as glad for.

‘You’ll be on the jet ski?’ I asked.

He hesitated. ‘I’m signed up for it, yes.’

‘You should,’ I said, realizing that I was the main reason for his hesitation. ‘Wufei will need someone out there to cheer him on, after all.’

Heero chuckled softly.

‘What will you be doing?’

‘I’ll take a chair and sit down on the beach,’ I said, placing a quick kiss on his nose. He frowned and opened his mouth slightly.

‘You shouldn’t be in the sun too much.’ It was his way of telling me he didn’t think I should go at all.

I grinned. ‘Thank you, mom. I’ll find an umbrella.’

‘You better,’ Heero said, gracefully surrendering, when a knock sounded on the door. They were starting to learn what a bad idea it was to barge in.

‘Breakfast,’ Trowa said, and the sound of his feet against the wooden floor travelled towards the kitchen.

We were soon dressed and all of us convened at the table on the deck, with the radio on to check if there was any news regarding the contest. All they said was that it looked promising, which was really about all you’d get at the Rift, so we headed out. We grabbed the car. Wufei said it was because he didn’t want to carry his boards all the way, but the Rift was closer than Choker, and we’d walked there. It didn’t take a genius to understand that they did it for me, but I wouldn’t complain. I couldn’t. There was no way I was fine enough to walk for any length in the sand. And entire day at the beach wasn’t likely to make me feel any better.

Heero shouldn’t have worried about me being in the sun. Quatre was every bit the mother hen that Heero couldn’t be when out on the jet ski. Quatre had given me a chair inside of the Winner tent and had placed a glass and container of icy water next to me before he went to the front where they were displaying their merchandise.

It wasn’t a bad spot to be in. I had a clear view of the water, with the sponsor’s tent being inside of the competitor’s area. I was even relatively hidden from any reporters that may look our way.

The waves were about as perfect as they could be at the Rift. I’d come out several times just to observe the waves. In all that time, I hadn’t gone in to ride them. I had thought to save that risk until after Gundams. I almost wished I had gone in earlier, there had been a time or two when the good waves had been coming more frequently, when I’d been sorely tempted to ride a wave. But the Rift is a surfing spot that should never be braved alone. The force of the waves is just too great.

‘Duo!’ a voice called cheerfully behind me. I couldn’t place it, so I turned around to see Kip being carried by his father over the sand. I got to my feet.

‘Kip! Good to see you, buddy,’ I said and made a gesture towards my chair with my hand.

Kip’s father gently set him down in the offered chair and held out his hand for me to shake.

‘Sorry, he saw you from up there,’ –he gestured towards the parking lot– ‘and wanted to come and say hi.’ I guess I wasn’t as well hidden as I had thought.

‘Of course. Hey, how about staying here to watch the competition. I’m sure Quatre wouldn’t mind. Would you, Q’?’ I called the last two sentences a bit louder, unsure if Quatre had heard what we were discussing. Unsure if he’d even noticed Kip and his father at all.

‘Not at all,’ Quatre answered from the front, where he’d obviously been eavesdropping.

‘Can I, pa?’ Kip asked and his father frowned.

‘We have work today, your mother and I both. I told you we could only come by for a quick peek. There are some functions that don’t close just because of surfing contests.’

‘We’ll look after him,’ I said. ‘If you can just bring his chair down here, he can come with us back to Heero’s place afterwards as well.’

Kip’s father looked at him, and I’m sure he saw the same pleading look in his son’s eyes as I did. He sighed, and looked his son directly in the eyes.

‘Listen to Duo and Quatre, all right, Kip?’

‘I will!’ the kid agreed readily.

‘You call if there’s anything.’

‘Yes,’ Kip nodded, and his father turned to me.

‘I’ll give you my phone number,’ he said, and pulled out his phone. I immediately bent down to search through my bag for my phone. I still hadn’t learnt to bring it everywhere, and I was pretty sure I’d forgotten it at the house. Way to prove to Kip’s dad I’d be responsible enough to take care of his kid.

‘I’ve got your number, Mr. Rickins, unless you’ve changed it lately?’ Quatre said, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Kip chuckled next to me, and I gave him a mock glare. He stuck out his tongue, and then he grinned widely. I was glad I hadn’t ruined his day just because I hadn’t brought the phone.

‘It’s still the same,’ the man said and spoke a little with Quatre before heading off to get the wheelchair so we could bring Kip if we went anywhere.

‘Lucky,’ I said to Kip, and he chuckled again.

‘I thought everyone had phones!’ he said, and I shook my head.

‘I have one,’ I said. ‘Somewhere.’ I flopped down in the sand next to him, having given up my chair.

‘You’re silly,’ he said with a small snicker.

‘Thank you,’ I said, making him laugh louder.

We spent the morning chattering idly with each other, and running our own commentary on the competition. Trowa and Quatre, and Wufei when his heat wasn’t running, amused us by interjecting with their own sharp observations, and we were having a great time. Wufei was doing really well, and I truly enjoyed seeing him in the big waves. They were definitely more his element than the smaller ones, and he seemed to be completely at home in the Rift.

It didn’t take more than an hour for me to feel the fatigue come creeping up on me, but there was no way I could leave. There were only five rounds after all, with the first being your usual non-elimination round. Each heat however, ran for forty minutes in order to be able to get as many good waves as possible.

In total, there were twelve entrees for Rift Wars, less than half of those who had entered Gundams were also interested in the big waves of the Rift. It wasn’t surprising, the Rift is kind of terrifying, and if you’re not confident you can distinguish the good waves from the closeouts, you have no business being out there. Normally, that’s an easy task; you can look at the wave and see where the slope is. The Rift however isn’t easy. Nothing about it is.

‘Medicine, boys,’ Quatre said behind us, and both Kip and I turned in surprise.

‘What?’ we both asked, grinned to each other, and then looked back at Quatre again.

‘Well, Heero made me promise I’d make sure you’d take yours, Duo. And Kip, Mr. Rickins made it a condition for your stay here.’

He said it in the kindest way possible, but he had the look of someone who was bracing himself for an argument. I’d learnt from my first mess-up however, and accepted the antibiotics with a smile. The one thing that did bother me was that Heero apparently felt the need to mother me, but that wasn’t Quatre’s fault. I’d keep that argument for Heero.

When the second round of the day started, I was really tired. I sat with my arms curled around my legs, my head resting on top of my knees. It was proving difficult to keep my eyes open, and I fell asleep where I sat.

‘Duo, Duo! It’s Wufei’s turn!’ Kip said, and shook my shoulder.

I blinked my eyes open, let go of my knees and straightened my back, wincing at how stiff I was. I murmured a small thanks to Kip for having woken me, and I wondered just how long I’d been sleeping. I could remember kind of having seen the first ones of the second round, and with Wufei having won his heat in the first round; he was competing in the first heat of the third round. So I had slept for more than an hour in that position. No wonder I was feeling stiff.

Wufei competed against Mueller in the heat, though I hesitate at calling it competing. Crushing might be more apt.

Trowa interrupted my musings when he came up with ice cream, and handed one to Kip.

‘Tro’, what about me?’ I asked, but he shrugged and dropped down into the sand next to me.

‘You didn’t say you wanted any,’ he said.

‘You are an evil man, Trowa. Evil.’

‘Here, Duo,’ Quatre said, and an ice cream was held in front of my nose.

‘I love you, Q’,’ I said, accepting the ice cream from him, and happily started to eat.

‘I think Mueller’s practicing his falling technique,’ I said to the guys when Mueller found himself in another closeout and had to bail. There was a small round of chuckles.

‘He’s really a good guy,’ Kip said, and I looked at the kid in surprise. Had I gone overboard? Did he know Mueller? Were they related?

‘He’s leaving all the best waves to Wufei,’ Kip said then, and grinned widely.

I blew out a breath of relief, and licked on my ice cream, watching idly as Wufei continued to show Mueller exactly how it should be done.

When Wufei came up, he was smirking, and happily accepted Sally’s embrace before they both walked towards us.

Mueller, on the other hand, looked a bit like a thundercloud, and he appeared to grumble something to Alex as he accepted his shirt and switched the competition shirt for it. Then he looked up, directly at us, and we locked eyes. I’m pretty sure there was lightning shooting from his eyes. Or it could have been my overly active imagination. Either way, he started towards us, and I groaned, but stiffly got to my feet, not wanting to stay sitting if Mueller was going to try anything.

Like one, Trowa and Quatre got to their feet as well, obviously having seen what I was bothered by. Kip looked a bit confused, even more so when Mueller and Alex stopped in front of us, with only the rope around the tent as a separator.

‘What’s up, Mueller? It’s not my fault you lost to Wufei,’ I said, and the man’s eyes narrowed.

‘There’s not a damn thing wrong with you,’ he said angrily, letting his eyes travel over my body. It made me uncomfortable, and more than a little pissed.

‘I’m happy you think so,’ I said cheekily. ‘I did choose my best trunks.’

I heard Trowa snort softly on the side, but I paid him no mind. But leave it to Trowa to find my quips funny.

‘You’re nothing but a fag who’s too scared to fight his own battles,’ Mueller said, presumably referring to my dropping out of Rift Wars. My immediate comeback would have been that he wouldn’t even have had a spot if I hadn’t dropped out. I didn’t get a chance to say it.

I’m not entirely sure what happened, or where the ice cream that suddenly sat smack in the middle of Mueller’s shirt had come from. I had to look at my own hand to verify I hadn’t been the one to throw it.

‘Duo is miles better than you’ll ever dream to be!’ the kid said next to me. His ice cream cone was suspiciously missing its filling.

‘He’s the one who’s dreaming if he thinks he’ll survive as a surfer now,’ Mueller said, with his head upturned, doing his best to look superior.

‘See, Mueller,’I said. ’That’s where you’re wrong. I’ve had more sponsors calling for me now than ever before. Apparently, it’s a thing to be a sponsor to the first openly gay pro surfer.’ I tried to say it nonchalantly as I could. ‘Thank you.’

His nose wrinkled as he looked at me in disgust. ‘What?’

‘You practically forced me to come out. It’s the best move I’ve made in a long time.’

‘Piece of faggot ass,’ he said and took a step forwards, but was halted by Alex’s hand on his shoulder.

‘Let’s go.’ Alex said, and to my amazement they turned and walked away.

It was as though we all let out our breath at the same time, allowing our shoulders to slump. Then I remembered his ruined shirt, and I had to give him one final farewell. I scrambled for my bag and withdrew my wallet, from which I brought out a ten-dollar bill.

My legs were protesting at my first steps, feeling shaky as I stepped over the rope, but once they stabilized I decided I was fine to jog to catch up with Mueller. I heard the others call for me, but I ignored them

‘Mueller!’ I called, and he snapped around.

I walked up to him and held out the ten.

‘Here, it looks you need it for a new shirt,’ I said to Mueller and put the ten in his pocket as he didn’t reach for it, but merely looked at it in disgust. I don’t take charity, especially not from the kinds of Mueller, and this was the perfect opportunity to give the money back.

When I turned to walk back to the tent, I was surprised to find the guys right behind me, Wufei and Trowa were watching me with smirks on their faces, and I knew they remembered my first meeting with Mueller. Quatre looked kind of confused, but still pleased.

‘Come on, Duo! Let’s go!’ Quatre said with a wide smile on his face and we went back to Kip.

‘If I see that guy within a year, it’s entirely too soon,’ I said, and Quatre smiled as he put his arm around my shoulders.

‘I have reason to believe it will be a lot longer than that before you see him again,’ he said into my ear, and I looked at him in surprise, but he’d already slipped away from me, and engaged Trowa in a conversation.

I plopped down in the sand next to Kip again, and Zero lay down next to me. I put my hand in his fur and scratched. What had Quatre meant?

Something dripped onto my hand and I looked at the melting ice cream in disgust, not really feeling like eating it anymore. Then Zero was there, gulping it down in one big bite, and I blinked.

‘You read minds now as well, boy?’ I asked, petting him, as he licked the last of the ice cream off of my hand. ‘Tro’?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Zee’s not allergic to ice cream, is he?’

Trowa snickered, and I sighed.

‘Come on, buddy.’ I said. ‘Do I have to take the dog to the vet, or what?’

‘No, you’re safe,’ Trowa said, sounding much too amused to my liking.

Kip, who hadn’t heard the story about Zero and the Diarrhea, was intrigued, and I ended up retelling the entire thing to him. It left him in tears, and now that it was all done and over it, I agreed that it was a tiny bit amusing. If only Zero hadn’t had to suffer for it.

Wufei got through the semifinals without a hitch, and it ended up being him and Broden in the finals.

Wufei surfed without abandon, and I stood up. Not to see him better, because it made no difference. His intensity had me wrapped up, and I was surfing with him. Every twist, every turn, I leaned ever so slightly, and we rode the waves. The water sounded in my ears, breathing, roaring.

 _Living_.

We got through the biggest wave yet, and the crowd roared. My heart was soaring when the horn sounded to end the heat, and I was somewhat rudely pulled back to myself.

How had I ever thought I could live without this?

I wanted to be out there.

Someone put a hand on my shoulder, and squeezed. I looked, and saw Quatre standing there, watching me with a melancholic smile.

‘He won,’ I said, and made sure to grin widely. I’d be back out there soon enough. There was no reason to make Quatre gloomy about it.

‘Can you stay with Kip, we’ll go congratulate him,’ Quatre said, and I nodded.

We watched as they headed to Wufei and lifted him on their shoulders, similarly to what they’d done for me two weeks ago.

‘Sorry for keeping you here,’ Kip said, and I looked down at him.

‘You’re not,’ I assured him. ‘I don’t much feel like carrying Wufei’s ass around anyways.’

He grinned, accepting my explanation, and we waited until awards had been handed out, interviews had been given, and they came back to us. When they came back, Heero was with them. He shot me a concerned gaze, and I rolled my eyes before I kissed him.

‘You’re in so much trouble,’ I told him, and he laughed softly.

‘Sorry.’

‘You should be. Making Q’ remember my meds?’

‘Did you remember them?’ he asked pointedly and I grinned. I hadn’t.

‘So not the point, ‘Ro,’ I said, and he leaned in to kiss me when I saw cops walking along the beach.

I pecked him on the lips before I nodded towards the cops.

‘What’s that about?’ I asked, and Heero shrugged, brows furrowed.

They walked up to Alex and Mueller, and soon had Mueller between them, saying something. Alex was looking at him with a frown, before he shook his head and turned his back on his friend. I could almost hear Mueller’s heart break as he shouted “I did it for you”. He didn’t resist when the cops led him off of the beach.

‘What the hell was that about?’ I asked again, and Heero shook his head.

‘Apparently there was a witness to when the shed burnt down,’ Quatre said and I understood his earlier insinuation.

‘They took him for arson?’ Wufei asked.

‘I should expect so,’ Quatre said.

‘About time,’ Wufei said, and I wondered if they’d all known.

I hadn’t expected Mueller to even be suspected, much less caught, so I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe I should have actually told them about what I’d heard Mueller say when he was trying to burn me alive.

An arm was wrapped around my waist, and I leaned in against Heero. He rested his cheek against my head, brushing his lips gently against my temple.

‘Love you,’ I said, and he answered in kind.

‘Heero, Duo, come on! We’ve got a barbecue to prepare for the winner!’

I chuckled and we walked slowly behind the guys. Trowa was carrying Kip, Quatre was carrying the wheelchair, and Wufei and Sally were carrying Wufei’s boards. Heero was practically carrying me. The day so far had really exhausted me, but I couldn’t turn down a barbecue.

‘Hey,’ I said on sudden thought. ‘You never prepared me a barbecue!’

They laughed loudly, and I grinned.

Lovable assholes.

***

The fire burnt hot and bright in the darkness of the night. Kip had been picked up by his father hours ago, and all other friends had left. Only the five of us, plus Sally, were still left, sitting silently around the fire.

Quatre and Trowa leaned against one of the logs with their hands intertwined. Sally sat in the sand in front of Wufei who sat on a log and massaged her shoulders.

Heero sat with his back against the log and his legs stretched out in front of him. I had my head on his thigh, and his hand was massaging my scalp in that way I’ve come to love. Zero lay with his head on Heero’s other leg and I was scratching his head.

Quatre had said it would be a barbecue for the winner. He never defined which one, and it had been just as much for me as it had been for Wufei.

As soon as we’d gotten back from the Rift, I had gone to sleep, and had only woken up by noises from everyone preparing food in the kitchen. It had been a bit of a shock to see so many people, and almost more of a shock to realize I knew all of them, and could call many of them friends. The amount of people I’d come to know and love in only a few short months was amazing.

The feeling that I had somewhere to belong, somewhere to come _home_ to was mind-boggling.

‘Love you, ‘Ro,’ I said, and his fingers stopped moving in my hair.

‘I love you too,’ he answered, and with a gentle stroke of his fingers he swiped away some hair that had been lying across my cheek.

I turned my head to look deeply into his blue eyes that sparkled from the fire.

I truly and utterly loved him.

This was life.

This was forever!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one chapter left now... :) (more like an epilogue...)


	29. Dawn Patrol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw no reason to delay the inevitable.  
> So here goes.  
> The final chapter.  
> Hope you enjoy

I woke up early, before sunrise, full of excitement in my heart. I slipped out of bed, careful not to disturb Heero, but he grabbed my hand, making me pause.

‘Too early,’ he muttered.

‘No, too late. Far too late,’ I said as I slipped out of his grip and instead leaned down to kiss him.

He wrapped his arms around me, and pulled me down on top of him, making me chuckle. I kissed his neck before I wiggled down to get loose from him.

‘I won’t have you distract me. Not today.’

I went to the chair where I’d put my trunks the previous evening so I wouldn’t have to search for them during the morning. I quickly pulled them on.

Meanwhile, Heero had sat up on the bed and watched me with an amused smile.

‘You coming?’ I asked him, and he smiled indulgently, but reached for his own trunks that had landed on the floor the previous evening. I had been aiming for the chair.

‘Would I let you go alone?’

‘Never.’

We headed out and grabbed our surfboards. The cold sand wasn’t very inviting, but it wouldn’t be cold for very much longer. I just wanted to catch the first rays of sunlight in the water.

‘Do you have to go to the Rift?’ Heero asked, not for the first time since the doctors had cleared me the day before.

‘The conditions are perfect for the Rift. If I don’t do it now, there might not be another chance until next winter.’

‘I –‘

‘Heero,’ I said, grabbing his hand to stop him, and I gave him a kiss on the lips. ‘I have to do this. Please?’

He sighed, but nodded. ‘Let’s at least start at the Surf?’

‘Sure. We can surf into the Rift when the sun is up.’

I started walking again. Towards the dark, black ocean whose waves were rumbling. I took a step into it, and Heero grabbed my hand. I looked at him, and saw the worry etched in his face. For a moment, I thought he’d stop me, but then he blew out a small breath and stepped in as well.

The water was calling, and I answered. I paddled out to the breaking point with Heero close behind me, and we waited in silence until the top of the sun became visible over the horizon.

The ocean was still dark, but the sky was a light blue, with clouds shifting colors between red, yellow and purple.

Then it came. The first wave. Mine.

I paddled for it, and felt that rush, the exhilaration when I caught it, and I popped up. A month without surfing should be nothing. I’d gone three before. But when it was out of your control and you wanted it, more than anything else, a month was about as long as a year.

The water flowed against my hand as I slowed down to get wrapped in the pipe. The water closed around me, stealing away all colors of the dawn. There was only the dark, dark blue of the ocean, and I reveled in it. I reveled, until the wave spat me out and the colors returned.

I looked back towards Heero, only to see him catch a wave.

It was nothing short of glorious. Heero was the depiction of perfect when he rode that wave towards me. The rising sun made his skin glisten, and my breath caught in my throat.

He’s beautiful.

He’s mine.

We rode the Surf until the sun was nearly up, and I drew us closer and closer to the Rift with every wave I caught. Heero followed, no doubt knowing exactly what I was doing.

The water was shining brightly now, shimmering as the sun drew a stream of light in the middle of it. It was right in the Rift.

I was in luck, and I didn’t have to wait long for the wave. It was going to be a big one, and I paddled, popping up as soon as I could.

It was quick, and it tried to buck me off, but I pressed my entire body against it, and it let me drop down. It immediately enveloped me, and I pumped for speed, already at the quickest I’d ever been when riding a wave. With the speed I was going at, I almost thought the board would break under my feet. But it held on, and I reached for the wall of water in front of me. I only dipped my finger; I couldn’t afford to lose any speed.

Then I came into the beam of light, and an image in the water caught my eye. Long hair was flowing loosely behind him, and he had that cocky grin set properly in his face. He was reaching for me, and I extended my hand to dip the rest of my fingers as well.

_Solo._

I lost him when the light disappeared, and I escaped from the wave. I sat down on my board, stunned, and reached for my necklace, Solo’s Tear. I could feel my own tears rush from my eyes, and I did nothing to stop them.

I realize it was probably my own reflection in the water, but I wanted to believe…. No, I _needed_ to believe it was Solo.

‘He forgives me,’ I whispered, and my hand was grabbed, and I was pulled in against Heero’s strong chest. I wrapped my arms around him and held tight.

‘Of course he does,’ he said, and kissed my forehead.

We stayed there, in each other’s arms, until Heero shivered ever so slightly, and I looked up at him.

‘Let’s go up?’ I said, and he nodded.

We paddled in, slowing our progress through holding hands, but I didn’t want to let go. Neither did he, if the strength with which he was holding me was anything to go by.

When we reached the shore, we gravitated towards each other, and were soon lying down in the sand that was no longer cold, but not yet warm.

‘I have to go back, ‘Ro,’ I said, and I’m not sure what made me say it at that moment. But once I had, I bulled ahead. ‘I love being a Pro.’

‘I know,’ he said, and twisted us around so that he was leaning above me. ‘I’ve always known.’ He kissed my forehead, and I sighed in relief. He wasn’t angry. ‘We’ll figure out the hows together, but for now… just let me have now.’

‘I’ll let you have forever,’ I said breathlessly, looking into his blue eyes.

Those deceptively gentle, blue eyes

He covered my lips with his and our tongues battled before I gave in.

Those dangerous, storming, blue eyes.

We rolled in the sand, not caring that we were in full view from the house. Not caring that the sand would be everywhere for weeks. Not caring about anything, except each other.

Heero was my ocean, and like a rip current, he’d caught onto me and dragged me into the deep end.

I had drowned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading my story all the way to the end!  
> I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
> 
> Any feedback is appreciated :)  
> Until next time :)


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